Crary Art Gallery, a small museum in Warren, Pennsylvania, hosted Visions in 2025 — an exhibition of works celebrating our national parks and environs. Most of the fifteen Paquette paintings (seen below) in this exhibition were begun on-site during his sojourns as Artist-in-Residence at Acadia, Rocky Mountain, and Yosemite national parks. Five other regional painters and photographers were also part of this exhibition.
EXHIBITION STATEMENT
“National parks aren’t simply oversized versions of city or county parks. They are our nation’s grandest temples, carefully constructed by nature and time. We go to them to shed the troubles of civilization and reconnect with a living Earth. We go to them hoping to be perceptive enough to be awed by the unfathomable universe that we forget surrounds us, not for a moment or even a few days, but for the infinite trajectory of time.
“It seems obvious that our national parks are worth far more than any profits that could come from harvesting commercial resources found within their boundaries. Nevertheless, our parks must be jealously protected by each generation to keep them from private interests that would strip them of their integrity and richness.
“A great benefit to humanity and nature alike, our national parks remain, as Wallace Stegner put it, ‘the best idea we ever had.'”
–Thomas Paquette, July 2025