Before we left for our summer vacation at Lake Oseetah in the Adirondack area of Upstate New York, I searched online for images of it. I'd had no hand in the booking of the cottage, had never been to the area, and had never heard of this lake. I found that it was popular with fishermen, and was known for it's lilies. The photos I found of it were mainly uninspiring. Quite average lake views, many taken in flat weather. So I travelled with few expectations. It was going to be a good family vacation, I was certain. And if I got a few nice days of canoeing and hiking in, then that would be a bonus.
Now, having been there, I find it hard to believe this lake is not wider known. I have travelled extensively and cannot recall a finer sight. Equal to it, yes, but no finer. Here are some photos, a very short film, and 2 recent paintings I've done in homage to the lake. More will follow.
I show my hand next to it for scale, and to signify that I painted it with my own hand. So many use AI programs these days to produce their paintings and photographs. They tell the software what they want and the computer creates it. I feel uneasy about this, it seems to me that asking a computer to create art on my behalf is akin to asking somebody to pray on my behalf. I don't want what I do to be mistaken for that sort of thing. Here's a closer view of the painting. I did it in about 3 hours, it's not a precise vision of the lake, but a version of the joy I felt there.
This was a scene near our cottage. 3 red bridges spanned a series of small islands. With the lilies, it did make us think of Monet. Like the other painting, I did this one quickly. You can see this mostly in the sky, very broad quick brushstrokes trying to capture my feeling of the scene. At the moment this idea of painting is what I'm concentrating on. I think of the scene, then of my internal reaction to it, and I try to add these 2 things together and figure out how I can paint the sum of them. Here's the main view upon which the painting is based, then more photos.
The last photo shows Lake Oseetah from the nearby Haystacks Peak. If you'd like to see more photos of the area, I post at Trek and Run on Facebook or Instagram. For more photos and my paintings, I'm at davewiseV2. You can find the links on my contact page. Finally, to round out this brief look at Oseetah, here's a 12 minute film I made whilst staying there, showing the lake and some of the nearby peaks.
