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Anne Diggory :
Blue Mountain Light
Adirondack Lakes Center for the Arts
Blue Mountain Lake, NY
Reception Aug 25, 4-7 pm, with Talk at 6 pm, Painting the Light
The exhibition pulls together artworks in many sizes and mediums inspired by the Blue Mountain 
Lake area over a span of 24 years. The majority of the pieces were created in recent years while I was artist-in-residence during five summers at the Adirondack Museum, as the Adirondack Experience was then called. The energy of nature has always inspired me with its ever-shifting light on moving waters and remarkable skies. I go beyond the description of a certain place to convey the complex experience of looking around that space. By manipulating composition, color, amount and clarity of detail and the ways that forms merge or separate, I work to create an energized, light-filled whole. In the last ten years I have created many mixed media works that shift between painting, photography and digital manipulation. Several examples of that work are in the exhibition.
(works labeled as in private or public collections are not in the exhibition)
Paintings of Blue Mountain Lake
My earliest paintings of Blue Mountain Lake were views from Eagle Lake. I stayed for the morning after a conference at the Blue Mountain Center in 204. At first I did a fairly traditional pairing of shoreline trees and the distant mountain. Then I became intrigued by a wheel barrow with a blue tarp that almost seemed to have been removed from the sky, leaving the white of the clouds where it had been.
Morning Light from Blue Mt. Center
8 x 10 1/4 "
Folded Blues
28x 22.5” Watercolor
When I returned to the area, based at the museum for art residencies, I painted from the museum’s shoreline where on a stormy day I could retreat to the leanto between storms.
Between Storms 14 ¾ x 30” acrylic on canvas
Islands in the Sky 8x8” acrylic on panel
The pavilion at the beach provided shelter on a rainy evening for this view of the lifting clouds as the storm ended.
After the Rain 12 x12” acrylic on panel
I also paddled out on the lake where one evening a very soft sky provided a backdrop to the sharper and darker shapes of the shore and islands.
Feathery Sky over Blue Mountain Lake 12x18” acrylic on panel
There were sunnier days as well.
Into the Blue (from the museum) 8x10” acrylic on panel
Blue Mountain from Rock Lake
6x9” mixed media 2013
Dun Brook Mt. From Rock Lake
Ink on brown paper
6.5x10” 2013 (not in exhibition
I spent many evenings at Prospect Point, inspired by the lengthening shadows and dramatic skies. There was a small blue ball on the picnic table above the beach that became a fun reference point for the blueness of the location. A young girl made sure that each evening I came to paint, the ball was found and placed back on the table.
Blue Ball at Blue Mountain Lake, 12 x 24” acrylic on canvas
I stayed for the campfire when it got dark and a few years later started a painting of the experience, using sketches, photos and invention to create an image of the gathering of light and people.
Campfire at Prospect Point, 16 x20” acrylic on canvas
After the light had gone from the foreground at Prospect Point, the changing sky was the main visual entertainment.
Another Glorious Evening 9x12”
Acrylic on panel
.
Encircled 12x18” (sold)
Glorious Evening 8x10”
Dispersing Light 8x10”
In July of this year I painted an approaching storm from the shore at the La Prairie cabins, needing to retreat for cover for the second painting.
Approaching Storm I
3.5x7.5” acrylic on Panel
Approaching Storm II 3x10” acrylic on panel
And I painted from my canoe
Bluff Point 3x8” acrylic on panel (sold)
Rock Island, 6x6”acrylic on panel
I paddled across the lake for a hike up to Castle Rock, and painted from the perch above the lake. The Castle Rock painting became the basis for a larger work that includes Blue Mountain.
Above the Blue, 10x10” Acrylic on panel 2018
(sold) 
View from Castle Rock 24 x 36” acrylic on canvas 2018 (sold)
Lake Durant
A camping trip to the Lake Durant Campground in October of 1994 inspired my first paintings of Blue Mountain. We had a lake side site with a view of the dancing shapes of the rock faces on the mountain. I did several watercolors of that view as well as the view back toward the shore with the trees in the fog.
October Reflections, watercolor
1994 8x9”
Final Color, watercolor 1994
7 3/4 x 13 ½”
Expansion 72 x 36” oil on canvas, private collection
Based on a small watercolor from the campsite ( not in exhibit)
About 15 years later I started summer stints as artist-in-residence at the then Adirondack Museum. For five summers I spent a week at the museum in the middle part of the day. On my free evenings I often went to the end of Lake Durant where the hiking trail bridges the narrow connection between the lake and Rock Pond. The first painting was done from a boulder on the shore, looking at the dramatic evening light and clouds across the lake. Later visits were with my paints in the canoe, putting in off Durant Road at the western end of the lake, at the trailhead for the Cascade Pond hike.
Last Light, Lake Durant
7 ¼ x 12 Acrylic on panel
The clouds that night were swept away by the wind and inspired a larger painting back in the studio.
Banner Day 24x30” acrylic on canvas (not in exhibition)
In summer months the sunset clouds hover over the passage between the shores and I created many artworks based on different angles and different skies.
Passage 16x20” acrylic on canvas
Two versions of the passage that are in private collections
.
Three artworks that were created in my canoe were later combined with photographs to create the much larger “Overture”
Gathering on the Surface, 8 ¾ x 10 ¾ “
mixed media (sold)
Opening Performance 20x20”
Collection of Saratoga Springs Hospital
Sunset Lines 16x20” private collection
Three hybrid works combine scans of my artworks, photographs, and digital manipulation into a digital file that was then printed on canvas for further painting
Overture 56x56” hybrid on canvas 2017
Edging In 2016
Hybrid on paper 13x19”
Twilight Overfull 201Hybrid on canvas 20 x 26.5”
(not in exhibition)
Buttermilk Falls
In the early morning, before my daily presence at the museum, I would go to Buttermilk Falls, where the morning light provided some drama to match the energy of the falls.
Anchored 15 x 30” (collection of Saratoga Springs Hospital)
Early Glow 10x20”
Acrylic on canvas
Golden Morning 16 x 20”
acrylic on canvas (sold)
One evening I returned to the location to experience a different light. The water really stood out amidst the nearly monochromatic darks.
Night Falls 11x14” acrylic on panel
I returned in early winter to work on a drawing of the wide space.
Winter Boulders 11x28”
Mixed media
(not in exhibition)
To create three large artworks based on Buttermilk Falls I combined scans of my smaller paintings, photographs and digital manipulations to make an Epson print on canvas that I painted on to finish the pieces. All three were featured in my recent solo exhibition at the Hyde Collection in Glens Falls, NY.
Flat Out
34 x 50” hybrid on canvas (sold)
Swimming Hole, 20 x 31in
Private collection
Coming and Going 38x 104” on two walls, shown in studio before framing (not in exhibition)
Price list available from info@adirondackarts.org or from Anne Diggory
To Contact Anne or be added to her email alerts, click here and scroll down
Online catalogue of hybrid work is at http:hybridvisions.diggory.com
Online catalogue of Saratoga Treescapes: Saratogatrees.diggory.com
Inventory of work up to 2002 www.diggory.com/cd
©All Rights Reserved Anne Diggory 2014