Robin Roger visited the space and checked out the art of Peter Dickison.

From the moment I walked in the door, I could tell that Hammertown was a comfortable kind of place. I stopped in at the Rhinebeck store (there are two more- one in Pine Plains and one in [Great] Barrington, Mass.) to check out the new gallery space and was greeted by artist Peter Dickison and a cockapoo puppy named Blanche, who were going for a walk. After introductions, Spencer Gates took me to the room where Dickison's paintings are hanging.

The room has warm, cream-colored walls and pieces of furniture strewn about like orphans waiting to be taken home. The furniture accents the paintings, echoing the natural browns, greens and golds in Dickison's landscapes. His brush strokes are reminiscent of Paul Cézanne's; the edges are smooth, and the figures are so soft that the people seem to blend in with their natural surroundings.

At first glance, it would be easy to miss the boy in the tree, whom Dickison says is based on a character from the book "The Baron In the Trees," by Italo Calvino. The painter was inspired by the story about a boy who decides to live his life in the treetops, never setting foot on the ground. Dickison says he likes the idea, because it connects the usually grounded human with the natural world. Unlike the angels who look down from on high in many paintings, disconnected and distant, the boy ties the two planes together.

Many of Dickison's paintings capture the beauty of the Hudson Valley, while others depict the south of France. The painter (who lives in Pine Plains) says there are many similarities between the two locales, including the agriculture, the topography and the lifestyle. While there is work to be done, and little time in which to do it in this region, the way of life here is far more relaxed than the "hustle and bustle" of the city to the south. This attitude reminded Dickison of his time in France, when he acted as teaching assistant for drawing at the Cleveland Institute of Arts in Lacoste.

"My time in France started me on a path where I began putting a sense of lifestyle into a painting, rather than reproducing what I saw," Dickison says.

He says he now tries to incorporate larger themes into his work, such as architecture, the natural environment and how we relate to these things. Because of that approach, Dickison says he does not like to classify his work.

"Over-arching the whole of my work is a desire to take an experience from my life and rebuild it so it has its own life," he says. "So, to say that a painting is a landscape falls short for me."

Dickison compliments the exhibition space, noting that it's different from a typical art gallery because of its warm and comfortable atmosphere. Like the baron in the trees, it connects the usually distant fine art and the intimacy of the home. The furniture was chosen to compliment the paintings, and was arranges by Dickison's wife, Suzanne Garvin, who manages the store.

"They turned the cliché of paintings to match your sofa upside down," says Dickison of the Hammertown staff.

The paintings will be on view through September.