Artist Anne Diggory has spent 40 years capturing in expressive detail the landscapes of Saratoga Springs, the Adirondacks, the Hudson River Valley and Alaska.
Two Adirondacks areas that have inspired Diggory are featured in “On Location: Keene Valley and Lake George,” a new exhibit now on display at the Kelly Adirondack Center.
The exhibit features a collection of midsize and small drawings, paintings and hybrids culled from the more than 70 sketches and paintings Diggory created in each location.
Her subject matter “arises from hikes and paddles, from invitations from friends or just wandering around looking for interesting light or juxtapositions.”
Both Keene Valley and Lake George attracted large numbers of artists in the 19th-century for the accessibility of mountain scenery amid settled areas, and several pieces on display were inspired by Diggory’s research into those locations.
One of the newer pieces on exhibit was inspired by the early evening light and lifting ground fog in Keene Valley.
“Along with many other folks, I pulled over at Marcy Field to watch the ever-changing scene,” Diggory explains on her website. “Every few minutes the relationships shifted in a continuing dialogue between mountains and clouds. I started with the sky and then worked as fast as I could. My son-in-law, the photographer Mike Lynch, was driving by and saw me at work - and stopped to take a picture. By then the fog was mostly gone, but I was able to rely on memory, invention and photographs as I finished it in my studio.”
The exhibit runs through May 6, 2016, with a gallery talk Feb. 11 at 5:30 p.m. A meet-the-artist event is 2 to 4 p.m. April 9. All events are free and open to the public.
A resident of Saratoga Springs, Diggory shows regularly at the Blue Mountain Gallery in New York City, and she recently had a solo exhibition at The Hyde Collection in Glens Falls. For the past five summers she has spent time as artist in residence at the Adirondack Museum in Blue Mountain Lake.
Her work has been featured in Adirondack Life, American Artist, the Adirondack Explorer and the New York Times. She writes a blog on Adirondack art history for the Adirondack Almanac.
Her research about John Frederick Kensett at Lake George was recently published in the Metropolitan Museum Journal.
The Kelly Adirondack Center is three miles from campus, at 897 St. David’s Lane, Niskayuna. Hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Mondays and Tuesdays, and 1 to 4 p.m. Thursdays.
The center includes a home built by noted Adirondack conservationist Paul Schaefer in 1934 and the Adirondack Research Library. Union acquired the center in 2011 from a private conservation group.
The library boasts the largest collection of material outside of the Adirondack Park, including rare books, maps, photographs, documents and the personal papers of some of the region's foremost conservationists.
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