On the river in Tonawanda

Riverwalk in Tonawanda is a trail along the Niagara river for walkers, skaters and cyclists, it extends down into Buffalo and up towards Niagara Falls. 

 Donna Hale and Youngstown Carol were settled near the water to paint. It was a bit breezy and the air had an Autumn chill, but the sun shined and it was all together lovely for a small group of Niagara Frontier Plein Air Painters.

Anne Zohur sat in the dappled shade of a Sycamore tree, you can see two other painters in the distance.  Kath Schifano, not in the picture worked on an architecture portrait of the well known lunch spot, Mississippi Mudds.

Fog at Bond's Lake

An early morning photo of the fog at Bond's Lake, the scene that Kathy Schifano painted.

This is her pastel painting 'Looking For Color', a speedy work before the fog lifted.

 Sherrill Primo made a morning painting to capture the fog, and later worked on a beautiful daylight scene from the same vantage. The two works side by side demonstrate how important color and light are to a realistic painter.

 Joan Shaw faced the opposite direction, capturing the beautiful meadow at the end of the road with oil paints, framed by a majestic hill rising into the distance.

Donna Hale used her pastels on a goldenrod background to catch the early colors of Fall on this chilly day.

NFPAP at 464 Gallery

There is no doubt we like to eat, this table was just crumbs by the end of the evening.

This is a bit more of the food and back room of the gallery. There was much to see and so many to talk to that the camera stayed in my pocket. I am hoping someone else took photos because the gallery was amazing! There were about 30 plein air paintings celebrating western New York.

Our poster and invitation, designed by Marcus Wise at the gallery featured the palette of Linda Ludwig of East Aurora.

Niagara Frontier Plein Air Painters Explained

Formed about 10 years ago, our group communicates by email. Each year, at a late winter meeting we plan a tentative calendar for paintouts from March through November and these dates are added to as artists find new locations or decide to become more involved and host the paintouts. The host is responsible for choosing a location, time and date and sending directions to the painters who will all meet at the parking spot.

We schedule locations throughout the Western New York area from Olcott and Wilson on Lake Erie, into Niagara Falls and Buffalo as well as parks and towns in all of Erie and Niagara Counties. NFPAP artists occasionally join with East Aurora and Rochester (GVPAP) painting groups for longer distance paint outs as well. Some of the members have traveled together for overnight or weekend camping at Allegheny, Letchworth, Finger Lakes and Vermont.

We have a few social get togethers, winter meetings to critique works, discuss methods or share materials and ideas. Friendships have developed and although our membership is currently mostly female we have had many men as members through the years.

A schedule for each month is emailed to our 40 or so members and they are asked to contact the host of each paintout if they plan to attend, there is safety in numbers in some of the out of the way wooded areas, questionable neighborhoods or isolated places. We most often paint in the morning, meet for a lunch and art sharing. Some painters leave after lunch while others stay a bit longer to finish up.

All media are represented and the artists have different expectations such as experimentation, documenting, expressing or just improving their painting skills. Some people prefer city and building sites while others want nature and the silence of wooded spots. Most are painters, oil, acrylic, watercolor and pastel are most common in the field.