WESTMORE — It was a postcard-perfect summer day at Lake Willoughby as artists dotted the landscape with easels and palettes. But one painter saw something different.
Taylor de Lench, a former journalist and first-time plein air competitor, spotted a man standing still in the lake with a metal detector.
“This guy looked like he was on a mission,” de Lench said. “Most people were there for leisure activities, but this man looked serious. He had all these wires coming out of him, wearing this backpack thing, standing perfectly still.”
That moment became the subject of his painting, which earned first prize at the 10th Annual Willoughby Plein Air Paint-Out, hosted by the Westmore Association. From story-driven scenes to explorations of light and color, each canvas submitted over the weekend offered a glimpse into both the artist’s vision and the landscape they worked in.
Artists registered Saturday morning at Fellowship Hall and received stamped canvases and a map of locations to paint. By 2 p.m., many artists noticed the arrival of wildfire smoke from Canada, which affected light and visibility.
“I was up on the top of Hinton Hill trying to paint the view when all of a sudden the mountains like Mount Mansfield disappeared,” artist Ginny Collins said.
Collins participated alongside her father Richard, who said his daughter taught him to paint rather than the other way around. The pair paint together weekly and both entered Saturday’s competition.
The smoke may have obscured the mountains, but it couldn’t dim the spirit of the event. Despite the haze, de Lench said it didn’t ruin the experience.
“I think it could have added some atmosphere to help the background recede a little bit,” he said. “But honestly, I’m glad it was yesterday and not today.”
By Sunday, the haze had thickened enough that distant peaks all but disappeared, but some artists found inspiration in more intimate subjects. Second-place winner Matthew Gauvin focused on Sentinel Rock, which he said he has wanted to paint for a few years now.
“It’s just something about that massive boulder sitting where it shouldn’t be, just at the top of this big hill over this expansive landscape,” Gauvin said.
Gauvin, a children’s book illustrator, said adapting his use of color to landscape painting has taken time.
“With children’s books, grass is green, you paint it green, or sky is blue, you paint it blue. But when you’re outside, depending on the shadow situation and the light, the color of that grass might be redder or have lots of yellows and reds and greens and blues in it.”
Laura Pohl, who teaches art in East Burke and lives in Westmore, received special recognition from the judge. Pohl also participated last year.
“I did a lot of driving around a few days ago to try to get a good view of the gap,” Pohl said. “I really like the telephone poles. I liked the depth that it created with the lines.”
Third-place winner Kevin Harkey said plein air painting is like “performance art.”
“People are looking over your shoulders and asking you questions. It adds another level of stress that you normally wouldn’t have,” he said.
Richard Amori and Tamara Niedzolkowski painted at the same lakeside garden. For Niedzolkowski, the experience offered mental clarity.
“For three solid hours, being in the right side of your brain — that is so different from the day-to-day rush of everything that you have to do in life and all the lists,” she said. “It was exactly what I was thinking about when we were doing it yesterday.”
Amori said working outside changes everything about how he paints.
“Outside, nothing’s in my control except for maybe how my hand hits the paper,” he said. “Nature just says, ‘All right, I’m going to throw this challenge at you and your paint’s going to dry in about 30 seconds.'”
While most artists painted from afar, Mari Harter offered something even more personal — her home.
“That’s my lily pond,” Harter said, pointing to Niedzolkowski’s painting on display. “It’s amazing to see your garden from someone else’s eyes.”
The Willoughby Plein Air Paint-Out is now in its 10th year, organized by the Westmore Association, a local nonprofit that maintains trails, supports lake preservation and awards scholarships to local students.
“We do a lot of events over the summer that are fun and interesting and educational,” Pam Kennedy said. “This sort of fits in to bring people in and really showcase the beauty of our area.”
Kennedy said artists pay a $15 registration fee, which includes a stamped canvas and access to a map of suggested sites, including private properties.
“We give them a map of probably 25 places they can paint,” she said.
The event concludes with a public reception and awards ceremony at Fellowship Hall.
When awards were announced Sunday, applause filled the room, not just for the winners, but for the community effort behind each painting.
From Sentinel Rock to the man in the lake, this year’s paint-out offered not only images from Westmore, but stories about how artists see and shape the world around them.
“For me to leave this guy out of the scenery yesterday, I feel like it would have done the landscape a disservice,” de Lench said, standing in front of his work.
Photos by Tanya Mueller.
