Craig Milewski (Provided photo)

SARANAC LAKE — Artist and poet Craig Milewski is the newest member of NorthWind Fine Arts.

Milewski brings an abstract esthetic to the gallery with his interpretations of Adirondack scenery.

Milewski currently resides in the northern Adirondacks. After 20 years, he retired from Paul Smith’s College, where he taught a range of courses in ecology and creative writing. Life prior to New York included ecological work in the fields of conservation and environmental science in Michigan, Minnesota and South Dakota. Retirement finally affords him the time to pursue two of his big interests: Painting and writing.

Milewski also completed an MFA in Writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts and describes the experience as liberating. Although he is a self-taught painter, he applies the creative process learned from poetry to oil painting, with a special interest in the use of palette knives to give texture to his pieces and the mystery of existence.

NorthWind Fine Arts Gallery is at 85 Main St., Saranac Lake. The gallery is open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily through August. The gallery features paintings in all mediums, jewelry, fused glass, turned wood and carved wood pieces.