A new exhibit will open this week at Edgewater Gallery on the Green, 6 Merchants Row in Middlebury, with a solo exhibition featuring Susan Abbott of Marshfield. In her newest body of work, the Vermont artist shares a personal portrait of landscape rooted in close observation, memory, and a sustained relationship with place. For over 30 years, Abbott has lived and worked along a dirt road in Vermont, walking the same one-mile stretch each morning and evening between her house and her studio. That daily passage — through snow, mud, heat, and golden light — has become both ritual and inspiration.

This exhibition brings together plein air watercolors and oils made on site, alongside larger studio compositions shaped by study, recollection, and invention. The outdoor works are quick, responsive, and atmospheric, capturing the exact light and color of a brief moment. In contrast, the studio pieces reflect a slower kind of seeing. Mountains shift, structures reappear, colors are reimagined. Abbott’s internal landscape overlays the physical scene, resulting in paintings that hold the weight of experience and the freedom of expression.

As a collection, “Here on This Hill” offers a meditation of one small stretch of Vermont, revealing its quiet beauty and joyful spirit. These paintings offer an invitation to consider how familiarity can inspire imagination — and how the act of painting can transform the everyday into something timeless.

An opening reception of “Here on This Hill” will be held on Saturday, Aug. 16, from 5:30-7 p.m. Abbott will give a brief talk at 6 p.m., followed by Q&A and discussion. For more information about the exhibit call the gallery at 802-989-7419 or email [email protected].