GLENS FALLS, NY.- To contemporary realist Allen Blagden, nature isn't just a place to go for a hike on a clear day. Being surrounded by the serenity of forests, lakes, seashores, and open fields is essential to the artist's creative spirit and sense of well-being. Marking the Moment: The Art of Allen Blagden, featuring forty-seven of the distinguished artist's works, opened to the public Sunday, February 12, at The Hyde Collection.

"We are thrilled to have the works of one of the nation's greatest watercolorists at The Hyde," said Erin Coe, Director of the Museum. "He combines a naturalist's love and respect for his subjects with a mastery of watercolor."

Mr. Blagden creates landscapes, images of wildlife, and portraits of family and friends strongly rooted in the tradition of American Realism, specifically the work of Winslow Homer and Andrew Wyeth. "He has absorbed and transformed their approaches into an original aesthetic sensibility," said Caroline Welsh, curator of Marking the Moment, an art historian and director emerita of Adirondack Museum. "His art gives us new ways to see and encounter our world."

Born into an artistic family, Blagden began his art training at age ten, under his father's direction at Hotchkiss School in Northwest Connecticut. He later studied at Cornell University, had a painting fellowship at Yale University Summer School, and took figure drawing at the National Academy of Design.

"He fuses technical precision with acute observation and instinct for striking compositions," Welsh added.

Blagden's landscapes and portraits show a deep reverence for his subjects—a much-respected grandmother, his daughters, the Adirondacks, and the island in Maine where he made memories with his family. His works of wildlife are unparalleled in their detail. Blagden's love of birds and animals is rooted in an internship illustrating for Serengeti National Park in Kenya, working for the Department of Ornithology at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC, and summers spent in the Adirondacks and on the coast of Maine.

"My work is always enhanced by my imagination," Blagden said. "I want the freedom to build on what I see in nature, rather than just record it."

The result is a portrayal of the natural world that is both realistic and impressionistic. Blagden’s work is in the collections of numerous museums, including the Adirondack Museum, Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum, Terra Foundation for American Art, Berkshire Museum, Shelburne Museum, and The Butler Institute of American Art, among others. His art is included in the collections of Billy Joel, David Rockefeller, and William Scranton.