En Plein Air

COURTESY THE ARTIST

Carolyn Abrams started painting more than 40 years ago when her husband brought home paints and a canvas because they couldn’t afford original artwork. “Paint your own,” he said. The rest is history, as she taught herself techniques to connect her creative spirit with the beauty of the natural world. Abrams, who lives in Brunswick, New York, found her way to West Stockbridge through a 2017 chance meeting in the Denver airport with Robin Schmitt, manager of the farmers market. “I fell in love with the town,” Abrams recalls. “The Guild of Berkshire Artists was running their Art on Main show, and I thought, what a supportive community. There is nothing like this in Brunswick.” She joined the Guild in 2020, wanting to learn plein air painting. In 2021, the group went to various Berkshire locations, including the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown (see page 24 for more art at the Clark), where she painted At the Clark, above, taken with the long road and cabin behind the museum. “I fell in love with plein air,” she says. “It captures the essence of the day, the sense of place. Using a cold wax technique, I scratch it in after it dries, putting my mark, my energy into it. Yesterday we went to Tanglewood to paint while the BSO practiced!” Now on the Guild’s board, Abrams helped secure its first permanent gallery space at 38 Main Street in West Stockbridge. A three-woman show, “Soul Visions,” runs September 29 to October 10, featuring Abrams’s atmospheric soulscapes, Susan Sabino’s photographs, and M.J. Marx’s sculptures. The gallery is open year-round, Thursdays to Sundays. berkshireartists.org

—Laura Mars