Upper School visual arts teacher and Junior Workshop co-director Auguste Elder was selected to be an artist in residence at Caumsett State Park for the month of July! As Auguste writes, "What makes this personally exciting is that it aligns with everything I cherish: stewardship of natural resources; interpretation of place through art, science, ecology, and culture; and peregrination in the traditions of H.D. Thoreau, Whitman, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau through a tract of land near and dear to me." Auguste, who will work as a painter during the residency, will utilize the time to develop a new body of work, much of which will be shared publicly through the program. 

Learn more about his residency and sign up for his workshop on July 26 below. Plus, don't miss a quote from Calhoun alum and writer Rafe Pasquini '23!

The Caumsett Foundation’s Artist in Residence Program

Caumsett State Historic Park Preserve
25 Lloyd Harbor Rd, Lloyd Harbor, NY 11743
July 2026

Auguste Elder is a painter, wood-firing sculptor, naturalist, and educator based in New York City. For over two decades, he has served as a teacher at The Calhoun School, where he co-directs a junior-year inquiry-based program and is the appointed curriculum-lead for the visual arts. While his paintings walk along the edge of the Les Nabis tradition, they are deeply informed by the coastal regions and salt marshes of the North Atlantic. His palette—subdued, humid, and softened by atmospheric perspective—evokes a "dispossession of place" reminiscent of the writings of H.D. Thoreau and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. In these works, the landscape is not merely a subject, but a meditation on the dialogue between observer and the natural world.

Writer Rafe Pasquini notes that Elder’s works: "...don’t just represent objects or ideas; they carry the texture of impermanence. They ask viewers to reckon with time, to look closely at the crumbling edges and shifting boundaries." This exploration of memory and the passage of time extends into his three-dimensional practice, represented by Manhattan’s Cavin-Morris Gallery. The gallery characterizes his praxis as one that blurs the boundaries between sculpture and functional pottery, using organic forms to challenge traditional notions of utility and invite cultural dialogue.

A former National Park Ranger in the Badlands, Elder’s practice is rooted as much in the stewardship of resources as it is in the literary tradition of exploring landscapes—past and present—by foot, kayak, and car with his wife Lisa Chan, also a writer and artist.

AIR Workshop: Exploration of Place Through Color Field-Journaling 
Sunday, July 26 at 3pm

Through a guided walk around Caumsett State Park's grounds with painter Auguste Elder, participants will collect colors and notes-to-self in their field journals that they've observed while on trail. Concepts like basic color theory, explanation and use of a color wheel, and the interaction of colors as studied by the late painter Joseph Albers will be explored and put to use in the great outdoors. Participants will be invited after the exercise to stop into Auguste's studio to see his A.I.R. canvases in progress, and gain an understanding of how he utilizes similar color field-journaling strategies to translate places into paintings.

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