Steve Thurston (2021)
David Hill stands in front of his painting in the new Wood Hill Gallery (north) in Bolton.
The Wood Hill Gallery of Saratoga Springs has opened a second location in Bolton Landing.
“I’ve always had my eye on this spot,” David Wood said in the gallery yesterday evening. He is a painter who partnered with Sharon Wood Castro, a photographer, over the winter to create one gallery in the Saratoga Springs Marketplace, and now a second on Lake George.
Hill said for an art gallery to work as a business space, it is best to be a short distance away from other buildings. Too many people meandering in can hurt the experience for more serious visitors, he said.
The new gallery does that. He and Castro took up space in the former Serendipity building, at 4950 Lake Shore Drive in Bolton, between Cate’s Italian Garden and Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream. Serendipity has moved across the street.
In this case, the stand-alone blue building is about 30 feet from the sidewalk with a wide brick path leading to it.
“It’s just up and away enough,” he said.
Sharon Wood Castro, his partner and a photographer, agreed. She said as an artist, gallery owner and sales person, she finds that selling high-end art as they do takes a lot of energy, and she focuses on a relationship with the buyer: “They’re buying a piece of you…I like the relationship. You get that with a smaller crowd.”
She added: “You want to be a location that people that are seeking you out go to...You don’t want to be the store in the mall.”
A photographer known for her pictures of Saratoga’s race horses--“My horses sold, and they sold well”--many of her pieces on the walls of the newly-opened gallery, however, are of the lake, wooden boats, the water and trees.
“Personally, it gives me the opportunity to focus on something I like. I have to go out and get lake images,” she said. “This is making me grow.”
A native of St. Thomas, Virgin Islands, Wood’s paintings have focused on Lake George and the Adirondacks since moving here 10 years ago. Having a “north” gallery on the lake made sense.
“My work was related to up here, anyway,” he said. “I love Lake George. I’ve been painting it for years.”
The gallery carries their original photos and paintings as well as the work of others. It includes sculpture, children's books and prints of the works. Hill said they plan to be open all summer and into the fall. Hill said the hope is to stay open at least on weekends to Christmas.