This year’s Woodworking and Fine Arts Weekend is highlighting two accomplished painters with different styles who have both been inspired by the area they are from. Ellen Babin comes to us for the third year from Cape Cod, Massachusetts and our own Constance Dodge all the way from Edinburg who is joining us for a fourth time. For both artists, painting has become more than a profession or passion. Having survived serious illnesses, they believe their painting is an integral part of the healing process.
Constance Dodge
As an artist living and working in the Southern Adirondacks, Constance Dodge has been drawn to the history and the beauty of the environment. Imagination and the immediacy of pastels have allowed her to interpret the incredible natural surroundings with a more impressionist palette, focusing on light and shadow. Connie’s education includes a BS in Art Educations from Nazareth College and a Masters in Fine Arts from Catholic University in Washington, D.C. She taught both at the high school and community college levels and was an adjunct instructor at a number of local colleges including the College of St. Rose.
Connie’s paintings were exhibited at Amos Eno Gallery in New York City from 1975-98. Her work appears in many public and private collections, the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, D.C., and she was published in the New York Magazine. The Lake George Visitors Center includes a mural she co-created. To cite a few of her many honors, Constance won “Best Overall Landscape” at the 2010 Central Adirondack Show, a Project Grant in 2002, a 2009 Artist Grant from NYSCA through the Saratoga Arts Council, and a Fellowship at the Millay Colony. You can view some of her paintings on her website: www.constanceadodge.com.
Ellen Babin
In her early years, Ellen Babin was inspired by the work of Andrew Wyeth. She is an award winning landscape artist of the Cape Cod Art Association in Barnstable, Massachusetts. Specializing in acrylics, her subjects include the beaches of Cape Cod as well as the mountains, wilderness trails, and streams of the Adirondacks. While pursuing a career as a Physician Assistant, Ellen earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Medicine with a minor in Art from Alderson Broaddus College in West Virginia. A Cape Codder at heart, Ellen moved to Yarmouth Port in 1983. Recently retired from medicine, she now spends her time fulfilling her passion – painting fulltime.
Ellen has participated in numerous juried art shows from Cape Cod to Blue Mountain Lake and has been published in many issues of the American Art Review, including 2010 July-August issue, 2010 September-October issue, 2010 November-December issue and 2011 January-February issue. Presently her work is displayed in galleries in Sandwich, Massachusetts and locally at Colorful Collections here in Northville New York. She is scheduled for a mother/daughter show at the Cultural center in South Yarmouth, Massachusetts in September 2014.
Northville Rotary’s Fifth Annual Woodworking and Fine Arts Weekend will be held in Northville at the Bradt Building and Town Park on Main Street Friday July 19th from 5:30-8:30, Saturday the 20th from 9-5, and Sunday the 21st from 10-3. In addition to our featured painters, over 50 artists including woodworkers, jewelers, photographers, weavers, sculptors, potters, a blacksmith and batik artist who will be displaying their unique talents. We will have a silent auction of items donated by the artists and will again be raffling a kayak and bicycle. Come join us. It is a great weekend in Northville on the Sacandaga Lake!