To quote one of our featured artists for this Exhibit, “the luminous quality of watercolor makes it unique among media.” Painter Larry Keefe goes on to say that it captures the special quality of light in the Finger Lakes. And thus, The Art Center of Yates County is excited to present two uniquely talented watercolor artists who bring the beauty of this area to you.
Helga Poreda – our Artist of the Year – has resided in the area since her retirement and has immersed herself in her love of depicting its charm, studying and focusing primarily on watercolor skills.
Larry Keefe, our second featured artist, clearly relishes the medium of watercolor as well, as he writes.
Come share the experience of enjoying our spectacular countryside gracing the walls of the Arts Center.
Helga Poreda
Helga has always had a passion for creating art. As a young girl she would be sketching anything she felt a connection to, especially pets and animals. She has painted in oils, acrylic, and watercolor.
Raising her family and maintaining her career did not leave much room to pursue her love for painting. Upon retiring to the Finger Lakes of New York State she started painting again. Inspired by the beauty of the Finger Lakes Region she paints landscapes, flowers, and animals. She has taken classes and workshops in watercolor and acrylic painting from Dick Kane, Pat Weaver, Sandra Tascanini, Jean K. Stevens, George Van Hook and others. She is a member of the Arts Center and the Penn Yan Art Guild.
Helga considers painting one of her life’s special pleasures and strives to portray this in her paintings.
The Artist of the Year award was established to celebrate that combination of artistic talent and active participation that keeps the Arts Center moving forward. The Board of Directors is pleased to recognize Helga Poreda as the Arts Center’s 2025 Artist of the Year.
Helga has been involved with the Arts Center for almost 25 years, showing and selling her paintings, taking classes, serving on committees and sharing her work in a variety of fundraising activities. Her images are always popular and are often chosen for the annual holiday card assortments. Helga is an active member of the “hanging gang,” volunteers who put up each exhibit. She usually works in watercolor and particularly enjoys painting animals and landscapes.
The Arts Center Board is excited to honor Helga’s wonderful work.
Larry Keefe
Keefe teaches watercolor painting at the Creative Workshop of the Rochester Memorial Art Gallery, is a founding member of the Pittsford Fine Art gallery and for years has been a signature member of the Rochester Art Club. He also belongs to the Finger Lakes Watercolor Painters group which he helped start.
He is a Victor native and graduated from Victor High School before leaving the area for college and grad school–he returned to his roots here thirty years ago and has no intention of leaving again.
In addition to landscapes of this area and his still life paintings, Keefe has created and sold large numbers of paintings showing the beauty of sailing—especially in the Finger Lakes—where he raced and was commodore of the Canandaigua Yacht Club.
Keefe’s enthusiasm for watercolor painting goes back to his school days when he first saw the work of Rochester master Ralph Avery on the covers of national magazines and realized you could make great art anywhere—even here in upstate New York. Later, as he wrapped up an international career marketing industrial automation software, Larry decided to return to first love—watercolor painting.
Since then, he trained under noted Rochester artists Brian O’Neill, the late Jeanne Lindsay, Dick Kane and Paul Allen Taylor and attended numerous workshops by national painters. He now exhibits regularly at the Memorial Art Gallery Creative Workshop Lucy Byrne gallery and at the Pittsford Fine Art gallery, has been accepted multiple times in the prestigious biennial Rochester Finger Lakes Exhibition in Rochester and wins awards at multiple juried shows.
Additional originals may be acquired by contacting the artist directly.
585.721.2233
An extensive catalogue of his work is online at www.fingerlakeswatercolor.com
Artist Statement
The luminous quality of watercolor makes it unique among media, and the way in which an expertly rendered watercolor painting can glow makes it ideal for depicting the special quality of light on the hills and waters of the Finger Lakes. Its simplicity–paper, pigment and water–makes it both uniquely flexible and powerful, and once the brush touches the paper, magic happens.
Because my chosen medium can flexibly represent almost anything, I have delighted over time in painting a wide variety of subjects and scenes, from racing sailboats on upstate lakes; glass, floral, fruit and still lifes; landscapes of our beautiful rolling hills; village street scenes; animals with personality, to nightscapes and gritty urban scenes. What I often point out to my students is that painting–when done well–can teach you see the world deeply and well and in that sense is a spiritual discipline unlike no other.
Janis Long
A native of Ontario, Canada, Janis started her jewelry business while living in Pennsylvania. She and her family started vacationing in our region in the 1990s (renting the “white cottage” at Sunny Point from Annie Smith!). In 2008 Janis and her husband bought a seasonal property on Keuka Lake and retired here full-time in 2014. Janis sold her unique and popular jewelry at the Arts Center, and, at various times, served as a board and committee member, a workshop instructor and the Arts Center’s top volunteer events coordinator/organizer. In 2014 she was selected as the Arts Center’s Volunteer of the Year.
Janis’ jewelry has morphed and changed through the years, including hand-worked metal and metal wire, recycled tin, “found objects” and polymer clay. Regardless of the medium used, her jewelry is recognizable for its grace and whimsy.
Since her move back to Pennsylvania a few years ago Janis has been sorely missed (though we’re grateful to still have her jewelry on hand to sell)! Her work as an artist and as a volunteer has had a profound impact on the Arts Center over the last two decades, recognition of which led to the decision to celebrate Janis with a lifetime achievement award.
