Monday, November 29, 2021

December Artist of the Month: Doreen O'Connor


Art At The Kent Library
Sponsored by The Friends of the Kent Library with Arts on the Lake

Exhibition Dates: January 1st to January 31st

Doreen O'Connor

Doreen O'Connor has lived in the Hudson Valley region almost her whole life and feels deeply connected to and inspired by the history and natural beauty of the area. Though her early years were in suburbia, her family purchased a farm in Dutchess County when she was nine years old. That farm and the surroundings became her muse.

Following the conventional wisdom of the 60s, Doreen pursued degrees in Art Education in order to be able to make a living from her art. After two years of teaching Junior High art, she went back to get a graduate degree only to find she had priced herself out of the market for art teachers. She worked as a substitute and continued to work in the historic house museum she had been working in while in graduate school. She stayed in the local history field for 20 years.

In 1990 Doreen started a decorative painting business doing faux finishes, murals, trompe l'oeil, etc. and never looked back. She found she was finally making a living from her art. "If it doesn't move, I have probably painted on it'' became her slogan.

Doreen moved back to the family farm after her father died in 2001 and lived there and cared for the place as she continued to do the decorative painting. As faux finishes were losing popularity and age was advancing, Doreen has been more involved in "fine art" work painting beloved old buildings, equipment and landscapes en plein air (outdoors).

Doreen is a member of ArtEast Open Studio Tour, Lower Hudson Valley Plein Air Painters and FrOGS, where she participates with other artists in paint outs and exhibits.

You can visit Ms. O'Connor online on her website at www.1doconnorwildflowers.com.


"Host of Golden Daffodils"
Acrylic on Panel
11" x 15"
$500



"Swamp Trees"
Acrylic on Panel
10" x 12"
$400



"Eleven Foot Six" sunflowers
Acrylic on Panel 
14" x 15"
$300

Thursday, November 4, 2021

November Artist of the Month: Jeanne Plekon

Jeanne Plekon Bio

I am a painter of landscapes and local scenery in the Hudson Valley in New York  and in southern California.  Most of my paintings are done 'en plein air’ - meaning ‘out doors,’ so a hat, umbrella, bug spray and sunscreen are essential equipment when I paint. I retreat to the comfort of my small studio to put finishing touches and my signature on paintings, and occasionally have painted entirely from a photograph.

After graduating college with a double major in studio art and art history, I earned a Masters in Art History and Museum Studies from the Williams College-Clark Art Institute. At Columbia University I completed all but my dissertation for the PhD, and focussed on landscape painting in the 18th and 19th centuries.  This study was foundational for my current pursuits, though between then and now, life had other plans for me.  Creating art was my orientation from the start, and now - after a 35 year hiatus in the corporate world - I am back at it. To help develop my art, I have studied with John C. Traynor in New Hampshire, Saim Caglayan in Borrego Springs, CA, Kate McGloughlin in Woodstock, NY, and Bill Galen, from Santa Fe.

I paint as often as possible, often with the Lower Hudson Valley Plein Air Painters, the San Diego Plein Air Painters and the Borrego Springs Plein Air Painters. I exhibit in the ArtEast (Dutchess County, NY) Open Studio Tour, the Pawling Farmers Market, and at various informal art shows in New England, and in California at the Borrego Art Institute, at the community arts festival called ‘The Circle of Art,’ and at the Borrego Soroptimists Art Studio Tour.

I have painted many ‘house portraits,’ often for families who are selling a long-time home and relocating, who want a painting to help remember the home and good-times. Contact me if you are interested. Images of the house portraits are available on my website.

2020: Second Prize, Fallbrook, CA, Grand Traditions Paint Out
2019: Honorable mention, Fallbrook, CA, Grand Traditions Paint Out
2018: Third Prize in Oil Painting at the Cortland (NY) Wine and Art Festival.

www.jeanneplekon.com
jplekon@yahoo.com
845-702-6974

Sponsored by The Friends of the Kent Library with Arts on the Lake


Betsy’s Meadow at Dawn
9” x 12”
Oil on canvas panel
$300


Carey Cottage, Portsmouth NH
11” x 14”
Oil on canvas panel
$425


Akin Library
10” x 8”
Oil on canvas panel
$250


Pawling Baptist Church
12” x 9”
Oil on canvas panel
$300


Goose Island at Ray’s Lake
12” x 9”
Oil on canvas panel
$300


View from Burger Hill, Rhinebeck NY
12” x 16”
Oil on canvas panel
$525