SARANAC LAKE — Peter Seward and his wife, Ren Davidson Seward, went on their second artist residency together recently.
“In 2024, we went to Iceland in late fall. Just this past December, we went to the Canadian Rockies for a month to both work on our projects: Ren writing and myself, I did, paintings, and mostly a drawing,” Peter said.
“I did a drawing on a 27-foot roll of paper. I worked on it a section at a time. That won’t be showing at the Artists Guild, but I will be bringing that to the Saranac Lake Free Library on May 1. Both artist residencies in mountain landscapes, a little different than our own. Both northerly locations and, for my work, using the natural world as an inspiration.”
As a new member of the Adirondack Artists Guild, two of Seward’s works are on display, “Wind in the Fjord” and “Luminescence,” both products of his Icelandic residency.
“Acknowledging that it’s not the Adirondacks but another northerly landscape, which I really responded to, being so open, and the opportunities for the play of light. Those two images show how we were straddling both late fall and early winter, totally different palettes, but within a few weeks of each other — that the snow would come, then warmer wind would come and melt the snow, and it would look like fall again,” he said.
Peter worked as an illustrator in New York City before moving to the North Country. Using both the figure and landscape as subjects, he likes to exploit watercolor’s potential as a fluid medium. He strives to appeal to the viewer’s natural inclination toward beauty, yet looks for opportunities to include some disruption of that relationship in the mix.
He has previously exhibited his paintings in solo shows at BluSeed Studios, Westport’s Depot, Paul Smiths VIC, as well as locations outside of the Adirondacks. Besides his work as a visual artist, Peter is also known locally for bringing many musical acts to Saranac Lake, currently at Lake Flower Landing, and formerly as a cofounder of Hobofest, according to a press release.
“I was fortunate enough to be born in a household where we were all practicing art because my parents met in art school at the Chicago Art Institute. My dad was an illustrator, who worked at home, so me and my four siblings all were nurtured by that environment,” Peter said.
“Even though I went to art school, I was already on that path with those gifts that were dropped in my lap, so to speak. After working as an illustrator, either freelance or on staff, it wasn’t until moving to the North Country that I had a second chance of putting my own fine art out and to exhibit. In the couple of decades before that, I really wasn’t exhibiting. I would work on my own work from time to time. Since we moved to the North Country in 2004, and breaking the cycle of having a staff job, was I able to work on a body of work.”
WATERCOLOR
Though Peter does work in oils, his focus is on watercolor as a medium.
“It initially began as a practice on hiking outings, backpacking trips, that I usually bring a small watercolor kit,” he said. “It really was with the intention of training myself to be able to do something quickly without much supplies.
“Eventually, it occurred to me that that medium working was for me on some levels. It’s something I have to keep relearning, I feel. Watercolor can be a difficult medium. It’s one of the fronts that I’m working on, but it’s one that I am focusing on, too.”
GUILD INVITATION
Before the late guild member Eleanor Sweeney died, it was her wish that Peter join the Guild.
“I received an invitation to be a guild member. It’s an opportunity to have work on exhibit because I’m not having exhibits in our own space (Lake Flower Landing), which is a studio gallery. We have work on the walls, but we don’t really have openings so much,” he said.
“If somebody comes over, they will see either artwork that we have collectively done or we’ve acquired. The guild opportunity gives me somewhat of a deadline and a responsibility to bring current work and work towards that opportunity and goal of having exhibit space, albeit shared exhibit space. I do like the social component of the cooperative guild membership and their art openings, so it’s also an arena to be socially engaged with our community in Saranac Lake.
“I’m working on a few different fronts, and I’m trying to do work that has a social narrative. It’s yet to be seen if I fit that into the guild or not. I’m also doing landscape painting that celebrates the beauty of nature, yet I’m often looking for some kind of social dynamic, human intervention or human infiltration into the landscape.”