Paintings From The Tug Hill area of NY

The Tug Hill area of New York State rises only 2000 feet at it highest point, but offers views of the western edge of the Adirondack Mountains and the Black River Valley with its rolling hills and farmland. Because of it's location just east of  Lake Ontario it get a large lake effect snowfall averaging 200 inches yearly. This is the highest lake effect snow fall anywhere in the northeast United States so it attracts snowmobiles and cross country skiers. The Tug Hill area covers portions of  four upstate New York  counties: Jefferson (my home but out of the boundaries), Lewis, Oneida and Oswego, defined in New York State law as encompassing 41 towns, with a total area of about 2,100 square miles (5,400 square kilometers). Other definitions range from 235 square miles to 800 square miles. Three towns included in my painting are so far are Watertown (Jefferson County), Lowville and Martinsburg (Lewis County). The paintings in this blog were inspired by the latter two areas.

Field of Golden Rod 14 x 24 inches oil studio

This studio painting was inspired by photos  I took on Corrigan Hill road. The road skirts the northern boundary of Whetstone Gulf State Park. From this point on the road a great view east of the Black River Valley is  also visible.  The road leads to the north ridge and south ridge trails along the gorge in  Whetstone Gulf Park, which I was on my way to for scouting out  views of the gorge in the park.

Whetstone Gulf State Park  Stream  9 x 12 oil plein air

Painted in mid September 2015  as one of our scheduled  Plein Air painters Thousand Islands Region (PAPTIR) paint outs.
Five participants of the group were in attendance. The bridge in the center left of the painting leads to a picnic area with a number of  curving and rocky stream scenes for future painting.

Whetstone Gulf State Park Gorge 24 inches by 36 inches oil studio

On a subsequent visit to Whetstone Gulf Park in October  2014, I hiked in with a painting buddy for about twenty five minutes over a rooted and rocky undulating trail  to this viewpoint of  the three mile long  gorge. Park literature describes it as one of  the most scenic vistas east of the Rock Mountains.  I did a plein air painting 11 x 14 inches of the view but it  was  only good enough for  a color reference along with photos to do this studio painting. Staring at the gorge for 3 hours while painting en plein air  embedded images in my memory which were not  really visible in the photos and were incorporated in the studio painting.

Amish Farm with  Plow and buggy horses 14 x 24 inches oil studio

Amish Farm Draft Horses 8 x 10 inch oil studio

This is a expanded version of the horse detail in the painting above.  The farm is on West Road, near Martinsburg. West Road is one way to approach  (or leave) Whetstone Gulf State Park when utilizing Route 12 to travel from or to the Watertown area and points north.  I stopped to take the photos to this and the farm painting below on my first visit to Whetstone Gulf State Park. More information and sale prices on these and other paintings can be found on my website at:
robert-p-hedden.artistwebsites.com