• Alice Dodge
• "Ring-Tailed Lemur" by Adelaide Murphy Tyrol

Picture an art space in Brooklyn or Chicago. For those in the know, it's an attic apartment up some rickety stairs, entered through the back door of a bodega. Now add a good dose of wholesomeness and relocate it to a Vermont dirt crossroads where, on a recent visit, contact improv dancers frolicked under the falling leaves beside a babbling brook and the smell of fresh bread wafted from the Adamant Cooperative — Calais' answer to a bodega.

Artist Janet MacLeod turned part of her studio into the upstairs Adamant Cooperative Gallery about three years ago. She, Karen Kane and Joni Clemons curated "Watermarks," a group exhibition on view through October 30.

The show examines why people paint with water, which makes sense for a location surrounded by it: Sodom Pond glistens through the upstairs window. "Watermarks" uses just a few pieces from six central Vermont painters to present a remarkably broad look at the medium.

In their artist statements, several of the show's participants mention watercolors' ease of use in plein air. East Montpelier artist Susan Bull Riley writes, "I love setting off on a bike ride or a hike with watercolor supplies in my backpack, never knowing if or when I'll find something I want to paint."

• Alice Dodge
• "Reeds" by Janet MacLeod

That spontaneity comes through in MacLeod's series of eight notebook-size watercolor landscape sketches, each thumbtacked to the wall and available for an unassuming $20. These quick, beautifully seen paintings take advantage of the medium to capture moments more than physical spaces: the last glow of sunrise edging out fog, the breeze on a pond, the air before it rains. They are unfussy and casual, conveying everything with a few strokes.

Susan Abbott takes a different tack: Her two paintings in the show are complicated still lifes that verge on trompe l'oeil. The emphasis in these watercolors is on color more than water, with red-and-green pears and vibrant tarot cards playing starring roles. Abbott's careful, confident technique is evident, even in giclée prints of the originals.

Bull Riley is known for her botanical illustrations. "Maple Leaf, March" offers a decomposed leaf, its holes and lacy veins crunchy and real, a slight shadow seeming to raise it from the page. She manages utter control without suffocating her subject.

• Alice Dodge
• "Maple Leaf, March" by Susan Bull Riley

At the opposite end of the spectrum, Molly Porter's abstract, drippy swirls of paint, torn straight from a spiral-bound sketchbook, are frenzied storms of color and energy.

Jo MacKenzie uses a loose, more traditional watercolor technique to describe not-so-traditional scenes: dogs, still lifes and funny, absurd combinations of the two such as "Dog With Glasses," in which two border collies are dwarfed by a discarded pair of specs.

Adelaide Murphy Tyrol's black-and-white sumi ink paintings of endangered species steal the show. Her "Ring-Tailed Lemur" drops into the picture plane from above, confronting the viewer with dinner-plate eyes. Next to it, "Peacock Chick" is coming to eviscerate us all with its giant talons.

Tyrol places nonabsorbent Yupo paper on the floor and paints on it with ink using a brush attached to a three-foot bamboo pole. She conveys great detail and texture while letting the liquidity of the medium — and its versatility — shine through.

An Adamant attic may not sound like the hippest corner of the art world, but the show's laid-back approach, showcasing experimentation over polish, is right on trend.