Featured artist: Mike Adams
Threshold, 18x36, acrylic on Ampersand Gessobord
Mike Adams is a coastal Maine–based landscape painter whose tonal plein air work captures the quiet, atmospheric beauty and spiritual essence of the natural world..
Overlook, 24x18, acrylic on Ampersand Hardbord
Q: You’ve mentioned the influence of the Hudson River School and the French Barbizon movement on your work. How do their philosophies guide your approach to plein air painting?
I’ve been drawn to the timeless feel of work from those periods. They had the ability to capture a fleeting moment on a grand scale in such a masterful way, and with beautiful, complementary color palettes. I’ve spent years admiring and chasing to achieve a mere glint of what they could do. They achieved a sense of beauty while also mixing in awe and fear of nature into their work.
Thomas Cole, specifically, was horrified by the industrial deforestation and new railways that were being cast onto the landscape. He wanted to paint nature untouched by man, and I keep that philosophy in my work. I never include people or buildings in my landscapes, as a means to keep my work solely about nature and the feeling we get from her.
Solitude, 6x8, acrylic on Ampersand Gessobord
Q: Your paintings often move between melancholy, calm, and a sense of mystery. Are those moods driven more by your internal state or by the landscape itself?
I’ve always been moved when people around me point to the sky under a gorgeous sunset and say, “Wow, check out the sky right now, it looks like a painting.” It just shows me how evocative painting truly is to humans. I want to bring these intense and strong feelings front and center in my work. I hope to evoke a strong feeling or a memory that may have happened before, or that is completely from their past life. When someone tells me their paintings bring up these emotions or memories, even telling me it brought a tear to their eye, it truly means the world to me.
Embrace, 12x9, acrylic on Ampersand Gessobord
Q: Do you find yourself more drawn to painting sunrises or sunsets? What draws you to that particular moment of light?
I love to watch a sunrise, but sunsets hold a special place in my work. Capturing that very last moment of light, it’s something that escapes us too fast every day, and I want to lasso it in and admire that moment just a bit longer.
Mike Adams with Thomas Cole's The Voyage of Life: Old Age
Q: Your favorite painting of all time is Thomas Cole’s The Voyage of Life: Old Age (1842). What is it about that piece that continues to resonate with you more than any other painting?
The series The Voyage of Life as a whole really showcases just that- birth through old age. With your guardian watching over you at birth, and staying back during youth and adulthood, letting you make your own decisions, as harsh as they may be. In Old Age I’m not only moved by the massive, bruised, heavy sky, but also by the water, which is now calm. The old man endured the rapids of the river of life. His guardian is back by his side, and he is accepting and embracing his very near death. I find it extremely moving and beautiful.
Mount Washington, 6x8, acrylic on Ampersand Gessobord
Q: You often travel with your dog on plein air painting trips. What has been your favorite place to take them to paint, and what made it stand out?
I try. He loves being outside as much as I do, but he is a bird-hunting dog through and through. He’d much rather run half a mile ahead of me, as we often do when we hike together, than be tethered to a tree watching me paint.
I took him out west with me to South Dakota and Montana when I was very green to plein air painting. It was a wonderful trip, but he hangs out at home now when I paint. I tend to set up to paint on a mountain cliffside or by an angry ocean. Gotta keep my little guy safe.
Untitled, 7x5, acrylic on Ampersand Gessobord
Q: You sometimes prefer acrylic over oil and note a stigma in plein air painting. What specifically attracts you to acrylic, and how do you address that perception?
I’ve made a near 90% shift to acrylic. It tends to get a negative connotation because I think people were simply told that oil is superior. Through my education in oil painting, I’ve learned to manipulate acrylic to work for me. I use many, many thin layers diluted with medium to shape and mold my work without having the exhausting drying times. I tend to work fast as is, and I like to finish a painting in a day or two, as opposed to weeks. Having to wait that long, to me, feels like I’m trying to walk forward down a hallway with someone holding my shirt from behind.
Modern acrylic is the same pigment as oil, just with different mediums, and dries to the same color as it is applied. I don’t find any medium superior, though. What works for you is what's best for you!
Untitled, 7x5, acrylic on Ampersand Gessobord
Q: Looking back, can you identify a moment or body of work that was a turning point in clarifying your artistic voice or direction?
I think seeing works by George Inness, Albert Bierstadt, Corot, Frederic Church, and Thomas Cole in person just had an immense hold on me. I’ve been a collector of antiques and admirer of all things classic and timeless for a while now. These artists just hit that timeless feeling on the head. I want to paint a scene that could be both 1626 or 2026.
Untitled, 10x8, acrylic on Ampersand Woodpanel
Q: How did you discover Ampersand, and what do you enjoy most about Ampersand panels for capturing your plein air work?
I found Ampersand by searching for the best panel I could find. I never used stretched canvas as light tends to filter through from the backside when painting outside. I was tired of those flimsy cardboard-backed panels that are everywhere in art stores. Those cardboard-backed panels warp so easily and just feel cheap, and I was immediately impressed by the premium, rigid feel of Gessobord panels. I also personally disliked any large-toothed canvas, so finding the subtle texture of Gessobord without being too smooth worked perfectly for my needs, and I’ve been a huge fan ever since. I like that Gessobord feels just as good at 4x6” as it does in large format. The cradled Gessobord panels are a game-changer, too. I highly recommend them for large works!
Mike Adams, Copper, and their plein air travel setup
Artist Bio:
Mike Adams is a landscape painter based in coastal Maine, specializing in tonalism and plein air. Drawing inspiration from the Hudson River School, the French Barbizon School, and American Tonalists, his work seeks to capture the spiritual essence of the natural world through subtle shifts in light, atmosphere, and mood. For Adams, each painting is an immersive exploration of the landscape, where emotion and environment quietly converge.
His work has been exhibited at the WCMFA, shown alongside artists such as Alexander Helwig Wyant, Albrecht Dürer, George Inness, and Frederic Church. His plein air practice has taken him across the United States and abroad, including painting trips to Iceland and a residency in Southern Italy. To see more of Mike's work, visit his website, Instagram, and TikTok.
