Eastern Long Island, New York, is full of beautiful farms, forests, ponds and bays, salt marsh estuaries, beaches, and dunes, and is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean. As time goes on, this natural wonderland is being diminished by new homes and commercial buildings.

The Peconic Land Trust is one of several organizations that work full time to find ways to preserve as much of the remaining land as possible, so that future generations will be able to enjoy the beauty that we are fortunate to see.

In 2006, ten painters and three landscape photographers created Plein Air Peconic to formalize their collaboration with the Peconic Land Trust. Since then, the artists have worked with the Trust, creating landscape art exhibitions in order to alert the public to the work being done to conserve our land. Since the summer of 2006, over 40 Peconic Land Trust sites have been painted and photographed specifically for Plein Air Peconic events. The sites are located on the South and North Forks, Riverhead Town and Shelter Island and were conserved by the cooperation between the Peconic Land Trust and individual landowners and in many cases local governments.

The first Plein Air Peconic art exhibition during Columbus Day weekend of 2006 was extremely successful for the artists and the Trust. That major art show was followed by a 2007 Traveling Exhibition that took a smaller show on a tour of villages and hamlets in Suffolk County.

Following the traveling shows, the Plein Air Peconic II, the major show of 2007 took place for three weeks in the Wallace Gallery in East Hampton, NY. The Traveling Exhibitions continued in 2008 with shows in galleries in Quogue and Greenport NY. Plein Air Peconic III & IV in 2008 & 2009 were held in the Grenning Gallery in Sag Harbor, NY. Traveling Exhibitions in 2009 were at the Rogers Library in Southampton, The historic Clinton Academy in East Hampton and The Cutchogue Library. In 2010 there will be a major summer long exhibition in the Southampton Historical Museum and an exhibition in Tiffany East Hampton during the prime summer season of July 4 weekend through Labor Day weekend.

copyright  |  site by Lindsay Shanholt