A New Entry: Sacandaga River Falls by Jay Stewart

Sacandaga River Falls is a 1981 oil on canvas by Jay Stewart (1916-2018). The 30 by 40 inch painting is signed and dated – ’81 – lower left. Though somewhat indiscernible, you can see that the artist titled the painting on the verso, upper stretcher bar.

Stewart was born in Utica, New York, December 12, 1916. He attended Utica College and Hamilton College, and graduated from the Pratt Institute, in Brooklyn. He served in the U. S. Army during World War II, in the European Theatre of Operations. He was a First Lieutenant in the field artillery, and received the Bronze Star.

Stewart was employed as a commercial artist, working for the advertising agencies Moser and Cotens, and Rumrill-Hoyt (Art Director, for both companies), in Utica, NY; and as Advertising Director for Partlow Corporation, in New Hartford, NY, from which he retired in 1984. Stewart taught Advertising Design at Mohawk Valley Community College, and was Publication Designer for Munson-Williams-Proctor Art Institute for twenty years (both in Utica).

Stewart loved to paint the surroundings of his second home in Sacandaga Lake, in the south-central Adirondack Mountains, in both realistic and somewhat abstract manners.