North of the 42nd Parallel: Artwork by Powell and Raines:

Painting, drawings and woodcuts at the VIC’s Heron Marsh gallery.

Robert Powell: Unfortunately, I learned how to color within the lines at very early age. I moved on to copying Wayne Trimm’s illustrations in The Conservationist Magazine, a monthly publication of the NYS DEC.

At the Rhode Island School of Design I majored in illustration. Upon realizing the need to support myself, I studied advertising at Pratt Institute night school. I was on Madison Avenue in the early 60’s and became Vice President/Associate Creative Director for a couple of agencies. When some Mad Men were enjoying three martini lunches, I was peddling my illustrations to book publishers, magazines and ad agencies. My work was predominately pen and ink. In 1985, I left Manhattan and opened my own small agency in Pound Ridge, NY which I finally shuttered in 2015. I found the move extremely rewarding. This also gave me time to participate with organizations and committees whose focus is on the environment, land use and preservation, something I have done for 30 years..

I moved to the beautiful Adirondacks in 2001. With my background it only makes sense that I paint landscapes. I look at my work not as an end piece, but as part of a journey. It may appear inconsistent as I explore; a style or look is not my goal, growing is.

Kevin Raines: Born out of a deep concern for environmental conservation Kevin’s landscapes reflect his love of the outdoors and they explore the wildness of nature. Many of the images he paints are a result of collaborative work with individuals and organizations such as The Adirondack Council, The Nature Conservancy, The Audubon Society, and UNESCO. Collaboratively, Kevin identifies unique biological webs and ecosystems and then accesses a site by foot or boat in order to paint in the field. Through this process of research and physical immersion into the landscape Kevin integrates site specific ecological and anthropological information into each image, fusing his artistic response to nature’s beauty with the geological forms and living organisms that make each site unique.

Kevin is a professor of art at the Notre Dame of Maryland University. His work is represented in private and corporate collections in the United States, Canada, Asia, and Europe.