“Canada Lake Portraits” features the artwork of Paul Bransom; wildlife painter, illustrator, and summer resident of Canada Lake. Born in Washington D.C. in 1885, Bransom taught himself to draw by watching animals in his family’s yard. First creating technical drawings for the Southern Railroad Company and General Electric, Bransom began his formal artistic career in 1906 as an illustrator for the Saturday Evening Post.

Bransom’s detailed illustrations featured in hundreds of magazines and more than 40 books, including Call of the Wild, Wind in the Willows, and Argosy of Fables. In the early 1920s, he built a home at Canada Lake which only provided further inspiration for his art. Along with other artists and writers, Bransom worked to capture the beauty of the Adirondacks and its animal residents.

The exhibition “Canada Lake Portraits” features more than twenty pieces from the Arkell collection by Bransom, as well as a portrait of the artist attributed to Bill Scott, and a view of Canada Lake by Charles Sarka, Bransom’s good friend and a companion of the Bransom family during their summers at the lake.