The cult of American landscape began here when Thomas Cole started sketching and painting the wilderness near Catskill village in 1825. ``Landscape hadn't been `done' yet," guide Erica Benton explained on a tour of Cole's home and studio, Cedar Grove . ``He created a type of art that Americans could call their own."
The yellow, Federal-style home features a wraparound veranda with sweeping views of Cole's beloved Catskills. The tour progresses from the parlor where Cole was married in 1836 (his wife's uncle owned the house) to the upstairs bedroom where he died in 1848 at 47 . When the site opened as a museum in 2001, curators chose not to install artificial light in his studio on the property. ``The light you see," Benton said, gesturing to the large north windows, ``was the light he painted by."
Cedar Grove is the starting point of the Hudson River School Art Trail that ranges from artists' homes to vistas that became touchstones of the heroic, ultimately patriotic style of landscape painting. The scenes vary in accessibility from roadside views to short walks to modestly challenging hikes. (Cedar Grove hands out a driving tour brochure.)
The logical base for the tour is Catskill village, a 19th-century river trade center on the rebound. Vacant storefronts still mar Main Street, but art galleries, antiques dealers, restaurants, and decor shops host evening wine receptions on the second Saturday of each month (www.mainstreetcatskill.com ). The Community Theatre (www.thecommunitytheatre.com ) runs an independent film festival on Wednesday nights, which can be packaged with dinner at the ambitious Bell's Cafe a few doors down. On Saturday mornings, the former ice warehouse at The Point , where Catskill Creek reaches the Hudson, becomes a farmers' and artisans' market with live entertainment.
