ALDEN BRYAN, A.W.S., born in Missouri and educated in economics at Harvard, settled in Jeffersonville, Vermont in 1940. While summering on Cape Ann, Bryan learned of the allure of Northern Vermont from others in the Rocky Neck Artist Colony. One trip to Jeffersonville to paint with Charles Curtis Allen was enough to convince Bryan that the attraction could last a lifetime.

As a painter, Bryan's forte was plein air oil painting, which he pursued on-site in twenty-six countries over a span of sixty years. He painted in watercolor for only a brief but intense period, painting the same scenes in watercolor and in oil, and earning membership in the American Watercolor Society before setting the medium aside.