On Nature’s Terms

Sunset over Theodore Roosevelt Wilderness, oil on linen by Thomas Paquette

Sole Snow Patch Raggeds, Thomas Paquette

January 17, 2014 - May 26, 2014

Thomas Paquette's paintings in On Nature's Terms were inspired by his journeys to federal wilderness areas all across the country. The great diversity and vitality of environments that comprise the National Wilderness Preservation System – from southwest canyons and high peaks, east and west seashores, to lowland swamps and deserts – are reflected in these gouache and oil paintings. Subjects include Okefenokee Swamp in the south to Boundary Waters Canoe Area in the north, and wilderness areas in Arizona, California, Colorado, Georgia, New Hampshire, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Utah, and Wyoming.

Paquette’s paintings are contemplations of those special places where nature dominates.  On Nature's Terms is a tribute to the importance of protecting some lands forever as wild.

Paquette states, “Natural landscapes inspire me beyond words, and so I paint them. I am captivated by the vastness of nature and the endless variety of moment-to-moment and place-to-place differences in weather, vegetation and geology. This fascination moves the brush.”

The Wildling and Paquette celebrate 2014 as it marks the fiftieth anniversary of the Wilderness Act, the first piece of legislation in the world to define protected wilderness areas.

The exhibit will travel from the Wildling to venues in New York and Indiana.