The Library will present an art exhibit entitled “Exploring the Tonalist Landscape” by Bill McLaughlin. 

Traditional Tonalism was an American artistic movement very popular from about 1880 to approximately 1920. Tonalist paintings can usually be recognized by their use of muted colors, soft atmospheric effects and intimate landscape subjects. New York’s diversity of natural landscapes, from the Catskills to the Adirondacks, were a significant source of inspiration for early painters in the movement.

Tonalism has regained its popularity in recent years with many new contemporary Tonalists whose work spans the gamut from traditional to more abstract styles. The paintings in this exhibit all have a common source in the origins of the Tonalist Movement. Muted colors, moody, atmospheric effects and an overall ambiguity with just a hint of narrative, humbly unites them in the Tonalist tradition.

Bill McLaughlin is a landscape painter and photographer based in New Berlin, NY. Witnessing the land in all its seasons and its many moods supplies much of the inspiration for his paintings. His landscapes strive to express not only his emotional connection to the land but also the urgent necessity for the active stewardship of our lands and water. Bill has exhibited extensively throughout Central New York. His work may be found at the Hamilton Center for the Arts and on his website: billmclaughlin.net.