Nestled in the picturesque town of Lake Luzerne, just 18 miles north of Saratoga, is the gallery of an extraordinary artist: Lynn Benevento. Through her richly detailed, realistic paintings, Benevento takes others into a world she knows intimately, a natural world of breathtaking mountain vistas and pine-strewn forest flowers dotted with fragile wildflowers. Working solely in acrylics, she uses delicate brush strokes, coupled with masterful color, to create vibrant, lifelike images.

Warm and welcoming, the Lynn Benevento Gallery at 4 Bridge Street houses original paintings, note cards, and a dazzling selection of beautifully matted and framed prints. The self-taught artist is easy-going and humble, quick to deflect praise from her work to the beauty of her Adirondack subjects.

Benevento’s roots go way back into local history. In 1801, her paternal Gilbert ancestors settled in nearby Hadley on Gilbert Hill. Generations later, her own father was raised there. Although the foothill has been renamed Hadley Hill, the artist notes with pride that “on some topographical maps it is still called Gilbert Hill.”

Another paternal relative—Benevento’s great-grandfather, Will Madison—was the very first fire observer on Hadley Mountain (a larger mountain with a fire tower). Benevento’s rich regional heritage may, in part, explain her passion for preserving in her paintings cherished rural scenes and quaint buildings.

‘The rural landscape is always changing,” Benevento laments. “Many times I’ve returned to a barn or old building I’ve wanted to paint, only to find it demolished.

Benevento grew up on a farm in nearby Corinth. After graduating from high school in 1970, she attended Houghton College for a semester and later trained one year in the nursing program at Ellis Hospital, Schenectady. “Growing up, I had no idea I would become an artist. I doodled in classes while listening to my teachers, but that was it.”

Enrolled in high school Regent’s programs, she had no time for art courses. Eventually, however, Benevento applied to an art college on Cape Cod, but wasn’t accepted because she had no art portfolio.

While waitressing at Lake Luzerne’s Waterhouse Restaurant in the early 1970s, she became close friends with co-worker Gino Benevento. In 1973, they married. For a while afterward, Lynn found a niche designing and making candles.

“We supplied all the specialty wedding candles for Schatz Stationary stores. In the seventies, a lot of crazy colors were used for wedding invitations.”

Decorative figures adorning each candle were painted to match the colors of the corresponding invitation. “I had to mix colors closely,” she recalls. “That’s actually how I learned to mix paints.”

Following her candle period, Benevento began painting whimsical scenes on small magnets and selling them for $1 to $1.50 each. Around 1980, she found herself painting dinosaurs for her two young sons. But, preferring to work from real-life subjects, Benevento soon turned to painting landscapes of her parents’ farm. From there she was drawn to old barns, local landmarks, wild flowers, and mountains.

“I’m crazy about hot-air balloons, too,” the artist confesses, adding that she and Gino now run the art show which accompanies the yearly Balloon Festival in Glens Falls. “I was in the hospital, in labor with my first son, Michael, when Gino looked out the window and said, “Oh, Lynn, there are balloons out there!”

Despite her initial response—an emphatic, “I don’t care!”—they attended the next festival and, immediately were hooked. In fact, Benevento sold her very first paintings at the premiere LARAC (Lower Adirondack Regional Arts Council) art showin conjunction with the event. After rushing two hot-air balloon paintings in time for the show, Benevento was dismayed to learn she only had enough money to purchase one frame.

“We actually emptied one of the kids’ piggy banks to get money for a second frame,” she laughs. “Then, on the day of the show, Rocky Aoki—founder of the Benihana Corporation and a crew member of the first balloon to cross over the Pacific Ocean—purchased both for one hundred and twenty-five dollars each. We were so excited! Later, Gino looked at me and said, ‘Lynn, how many magnets would you need to paint to make two hundred and fifty dollars?’”

Today, Benevento’s works grace corporate and private collections in the United States and Japan. Her painting depicting two American soldiers wounded in Vietnam hangs in the Reagan Presidential Library. A framed newspaper article in her Lake Luzerne gallery shows Benevento presenting a painting to Governor George Pataki. And the logo for the Saratoga National Historical Park? That’s hers as well.

For years, Benevento participated in regional art shows year-round. But in 1999, with the long-awaited opening of her very own gallery, Benevento needed to cut back. “We’re open six days a week during the tourist season, four days a week during the winter months, and it’s really important to me that I be in the gallery to meet my customers.”

On the wall beside each painting, Benevento posts a description of how that painting came to be. “My customers really appreciate learning about each piece. I, myself, like to know the story behind an artist’s work.”

Lynn Benevento’s Web site—a work of art in itself—includes these write-ups. “My oldest son says they’re cheesy,” she chuckles, “but I tell him, “they’re staying.”

At one point, Lynn and Gino both worked for well-known artist Cate Mandigo. “That’s where we learned all about matting and framing. In our gallery, we both mat and frame. But, generally, I paint and Gino does everything else,” she says with open admiration. “Gino arranges the gallery and window displays, and he does all the cooking. He’s a wonderful cook!”

Although Benevento no longer does summertime shows, she participates in two annual LARAC shows, one in springtime and one in November. “And I’ll always do the Spring Blossom Festival in Glens Falls and, of course, the fall Balloon Festival.”

An avid hiker and outdoors enthusiast, Benevento is happiest when walking in the woods or climbing a mountain with family and friends. “Being on top of a mountain is the most fantastic thing in the world. It’s a very emotional experience. I thank God for those times. When I paint, I try to make those moments last forever.”

Benevento works largely from photographs. “But photos alone are not enough,” she insists. “I need to have been there myself… to have felt the wind in my hair or the smell of the flowers. Then, through photos, it all comes alive for me when I begin painting.”

The artist doesn’t keep track of hours, but it takes weeks or even months to complete one painting to her satisfaction. “Gino will come in and say, ‘Ah, this one is done. You’re going to sign it, right?’ And I’ll reply, “No I’ve got another two weeks!”

Last year Benevento painted four seasonal rendering of Rockwell Falls—the stunning Hudson River falls seen from the bridge separating Lake Luzerne and Hadley, a one minute walk from the gallery. “I began painting them last November, and finished in June.”

When asked to cite her personal favorite paintings, the artist hesitates—possibly because everything Benevento paints depicts something near and dear to her heart.

When asked about stylistic changes over the years, she replies, “I’ve always had trouble doing water, but now I think I’m finally getting it.”

“So, you’ve conquered water,” I murmur, scribbling.

“No, no!” she laughs. “I’m just doing it better than I used to. Never say conquered.”

Inspired continually by upstate New York’s diverse landscape, Lynn Benevento’s detailed, oh-so-realistic paintings are worth a trip from anywhere. After visiting her cozy Bridge Street gallery, you’ll find yourself eagerly returning, year after year, to see this outstanding Adirondack artist’s latest works.

Wendy Hobday Haugh is a free lance writer from Burnt Hills.

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