Local artist swept up in current of success

Author: Mary Lane MacPherson

When local artist Doug Lazarus first started holding major art shows in 1976, he had a little inkling that the major theme of his displays during the 21st century would be water.

Lazarus, whose art gallery and studio, The Great Falls Fine Art Center is located in downtown Middlebury's Frog Hollow, has created exhibitions of the Hudson River, the Canals of Scotland and the Erie Canal. He is currently organizing "Champlain's Lake Rediscovered," an exhibition of artwork commemorating the 400th anniversary of the discovery of Lake Champlain.

"Since 2000, the theme that keeps showing up in my life is water," said Lazarus. "The first thing people notice about my gallery is that it's sitting right next to [Otter] Creek."

The theme of waterways came into Lazarus' life unexpectedly, as a brainstormed idea during a lunch with an employee of the Lake Champlain Publishing Company in 1999. A friend had recently loaned him a 12-foot long scroll created by William Wade in 1846, a remarkably detailed work recording the river communities from New York to Albany.

"It wasn't the river that attracted me, it was theÖunique novelty of the scroll," Lazarus pointed out. "I wasn't thinking I would be getting involved in waterways on and on."

Lazarus traveled up and down the river on a lobster boat, taking around 500 photographs to work from. An exhibition of his 68 watercolors was held at the South Street Seaport Museum in Lower Manhattan, copies of which can be found in his book, Hudson River Journey: An Artist's Perspective.

His Hudson River watercolors drew attention from the Waterways Trust of Scotland, which had recently finished refurbishing the Scottish Canals. Gail McCauley, the head of the Trust, thought it would be an interesting twist on the promotion if an American Artist were chosen. After traveling around Scotland, Lazarus put on a modest show of 20 paintings, which accurately depicted the equipment and architecture of the canals, but which took liberties with the scenery and setting.

The larger exhibition was scheduled for Oct. 2001. As an artistic collaboration between Great Britain and the United States, the exhibition was scheduled to be shown at the Arsenal Gallery in Central Park.

"It was a very trumped up event. Sean Connery was even going to be there, Lazarus quipped while laughing. "I was going to make a lot of money that night." The events of Sept. 11, 2001, resulted in a downsized exhibition, however, and Lazarus was back to finding another project on which to work.

Attracted by the beauty of the Erie Canal, Lazarus was commissioned by Fleet Bank in 2002 to create a display of artwork and footage of a trip along the canal.

"I got eight or nine guys to travel with me on the water from Albany to Buffalo," said Lazarus. "I had a historian, videographer, engineer, chef and a mechanic."

Once again, an impediment to Lazarus' lofty plans arose, as Fleet Bank went under and merged with Bank of America before the exhibition was put up.

"The outside world kept stepping in with its huge impact," he said. The video project was shelved and Lazarus' works were all auctioned off at the Sheldon Museum in Sheldon, Vt.

Continuing his artistic journey with water, Lazarus is now working with the Vermont Council of Arts to organize a juried show of fifty works by 50 artists commemorating the Lake Champlain Quadricentennial Celebration.

"We want as wide a variety of styles and approaches as we can come up with," said Lazarus, regarding the unusually large number of pieces.

The Celebration serves not only as an opportunity for Lazarus to continue his work with waterways, this time as the driving force behind the creative work of others, but also as a promotion of Vermont's burgeoning assemblage of artists.

"This is going to be an announcement that Vermont has some very good artists within its borders," said Lazarus. "It's a prototype for announcing Vermont's art culture. We hope to change the perception that Vermont is just a place for folk art." Such an announcement will be heard not only in the U.S. but abroad as well. The exhibition will travel to New York, Boston, Washington, Montreal and a city in France, yet to be determined.

Lazarus likens his painting waterways to water itself, which has at last flowed into Quadricentennial show.

"There's always been this weaving of the same forces, but it's always water," said Lazarus. "The [locations for] the shows have always been closer and closer to home. It's sort of like Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz in that when you go back to your home you're going in the right direction."

For Middlebury students, however, no journey through Oz is necessary. A short stroll down a red brick path will lead to Doug Lazarus and his water-inspired artwork.