The Genesee Valley Plein Air Painters will open its 18th Annual Art Show on January 1 in the community room at Barnes & Noble. You can see the exhibit at Pittsford Plaza, 3349 Monroe Ave, Rochester, NY 14618, when it opens on Sunday, January 1, 2023. The reception and awards ceremony takes place on Saturday, January 7, from 2-4 pm. This competitive, judged, and juried show includes 90 original paintings created throughout the Northeast and runs through January 28. Most works are for sale.

Jurying and judging was performed by George Van Hook. Van Hook was born and raised in Abington, Pennsylvania, a northern suburb of Philadelphia. He began painting very early and was able to participate in the vibrant artistic culture of the region. The family owned a farm in Bucks County, home of the Pennsylvania impressionists, and he became heavily influenced by their fine academic training and a love of the prosaic landscape. Another early local influence was the "Brandywine Tradition," the illustrative work of Howard Pyle and the generations of Wyeths. Van Hook thinks of his paintings as primarily a visual response to the selected environment, be it landscape, figure, or still life. "I want the color to be beautiful and the drawing firm and secure," he says. The paintings are a marriage of external and internal forces – what emerges on the canvas should be a reflection of both the beauty of the world and the artist's most inner response. Van Hook is a frequent participant in plein air festivals and has won numerous awards.

Free and open to the public, the show will continue through Saturday, January 28, 2023. Barnes & Noble is open every day from 9 am to 9 pm, except on Sunday (10 am to 7 pm) and New Year's Day from 11 am to 7 pm.