There is a strong sense of place in the paintings by Alix Hallman Travis. For her the painting life begins and ends with watercolor. Her summers are spent painting en plein air in watercolor. Those summer paintings are often the source of inspiration for her winter oils and acrylics, first created just across the driveway from her home in her studio, an historic 1884 blacksmith shop in the tiny, remote hamlet of Halcottsville, Catskill Mountains of upper New York State. Now she works in a studio in the village of Rhinebeck in the Hudson River Valley.

Travis has exhibited her watercolors locally and nationally, earning her awards and signature memberships in the New York Plein Air Painters, and the Pennsylvania Watercolor Society. A charter member of Longyear Gallery, Margaretville, NY, and formerly owner and director of the Commons Gallery, also in Margaretville, NY. In 2007 she founded and coordinated the East Branch Delaware River Plein Air Painters, a loose association of professionals and amateur artists who express their appreciation of the Catskill landscape by painting outside together all summer long. Prompted by a recent move to Rhinebeck she is a member of the gallery@rhinebeck.

Travis began her art training at the Cleveland Institute of Art, followed by study at the Arts Students League, New York. While at the League she was awarded the Art Students League/Fantasy Fountain Fund Merit Award, to study in Paris, France at the Paris American Institute. She returns to the Art Students League for short periods whenever possible.

Travis teaches in small workshops in her studio and around her neighborhood often remarking that she needs to do little more than step outside the studio door to find intriguing village life and subject matter to observe and paint. Many of her recent paintings may be viewed on her website: www.AlixHTravis.com and she writes a blog at www.alixhtravis.wordpress.com. A recent video of Travis’ en plein air painting can be viewed at https://youtu.be/c33CSPqmOdw.