Plein Air Painting near Uxbridge, Ontario

Uxbridge Ontario is surrounded by wonderful green forests, farm pastures and scenic hillsides. Just the perfect place to pick for a Plein Air painting day!

Quaint Quaker buildings dot the landscape too and provide an interesting focal point for local artists and those who choose to come to one of the several outings designed especially for artists each year. Or if you are an art admirer, you will love the Uxbridge Studio Tour & Sale, 2009 will be its 24th year and usually takes place in the early fall. Visit up to 57 artists studios in the area.

Even dragonflies tried to get into the act as they lit on someone’s drying canvas as it lay there awaiting another layer of precious paint.

Or why not capture the whole building as well? The eyes take in a feast of color and form, and no two people will see it the same way. As I passed painters along the path, many focused on views that others would pass by, and yet created a work of art.

Running between Stouffville and Uxbridge, the York Durham Heritage Railway makes Uxbridge its northernmost stop through fields, forests and pasture lands. 

Uxbridge boasts the first ‘passenger carrying’ narrow gauge railway in North America, the Toronto and Nipissing Railway Toronto and Nipissing Railway, and for over a decade Uxbridge was the headquarters of the railway. A quaint train ride on the York/Durham line will still take tourists on a trip through yesteryear.

The train stopped by at this farm road along the way to pick up some artists and take them back into town after a wonderful sunny day out painting in nature.

Scroll down to the bottom of the page for more pictoral views.

A little about Uxbridge - and attractions to visit.

The first settlers arriving in Uxbridge, soon after it was surveyed as part of York County in Ontario, were Quakers from the Catawissa area of Pennsylvania who started arriving in 1806. An industrious community of Quakers soon started carving out a life in this picturesque place, starting with the oldest building, the Uxbridge Friends Meeting House, built in 1820 and still overlooking the town from Quaker Hill, about a quick crow’s flight to the west of the town.

In 1974 the expanded Township of Uxbridge was formed amalgamating the Town of Uxbridge and Scott Township in the Regional Municipality of Durham.

• Only an hour’s commute from Toronto, many families have taken up a quieter residence in Uxbridge and it is home to many artists. An important community serving northern Durham Region it is also home to Pine Valley Packaging (packaging, containers and portable shelters), Koch-Glitsch Canada (mass transfer systems) and Hela Canada (spice and ingredient manufacture).
• Naturally, Uxbridge is twinned with Catawissa, PA in the United States, as many of its settlers originated there.

• There  are great places to take your family on a visit to Uxbridge.
• Uxbridge-Scott Museum and Archives, includes nine heritage buildings as well as a heritage herb and flower garden.
• Uxbridge's Elgin Park,
• Memorial Temple, erected in 1935-36 by Foster, a former mayor of Toronto. Inspired by Foster's visit to India, the Temple was designed by architects J.H. Craig (1889-1954) and H.H. Madrill (1889-1998).
• Meander along the many woodland trails throughout the surrounding Uxbridge countryside.
• Walk along the main street in historic downtown Uxbridge and visit the shops.
• Uxbridge even boasts its own theatre -the Moxy and of course the Music Hall...

Many tourists visit the former home in nearby Leaskdale of famed author Lucy Maud Montgomery who is best known for a series of novels such as Anne of Green Gables, which has been made into a TV series by CBC called ‘Road to Avonlea’ which was shot on location at an exterior village set located in Uxbridge during 1989 and 1996. The home is now the site of the Leaskdale Manse Museum.

The Uxbridge Trail System gives residents and visitors a wonderful place to walk, ride and explore in the fresh air. The trail systems connect to the Oak Ridges Trail and the Trans-Canada Trail systems.

At the end of July the ‘Highlands of Durham’ Games are held in Elgin Park. The Lions Club hosts ‘Art in the Park’, or ‘Summerfest’ as it is also sometimes called is held the second week in August. The juried art show attached to this event attracts artists from across the province of Ontario and beyond.

The Uxbridge Fall Fair held during the second week in September each year includes tractor pulls, a demolition derby and family focused fun.

The Uxbridge Studio Tour and Sale is also held in September with people visiting artists studios and buying scenes and culture created by the many resident artists.

There is always something going on in Uxbridge that gives people something to do on the weekend, from a picnic in the park, boy scouts learning about woodland survival, theatrical and musical productions held at the Music Hall or movies at The Roxy. Winter is just as active for snowmobilers, attending the Heritage Christmas Craft Show, held the second Saturday in November, or the Santa Claus Parade in late November.

The Township of Uxbridge encompasses a host of smaller villages such as Coppins Corners, Goodwood, Leaskdale, Sandford, Sandy Hook, Siloam, Udora, (just south of Pefferlaw, and Beaverton), Uxbridge the Town, Victoria Corners, and Zephyr.

For more beautiful scenes of artists painting and the beauty that surrounds them in and around Uxbridge Ontario keep looking below at our tour in pictures. 

Hope you have enjoyed this little virtual tour in photographs by
Trina Astor-Stewart. Plan a trip to Uxbridge this summer or fall,
you will surely enjoy it.