Monticello High School art teacher Jay Brooks knows who to give credit to.
"I've learned from great teachers, private instructors, and I studied at Carnegie-Mellon University," he says.
"That's the God's honest truth," he says.
Brooks, now 52, grew up in the tiny town of Pavilion, N.Y., near Batavia, graduated from Carnegie-Mellon University in 1988 and got his master's degree in art from Columbia University in 1990.
After a three-year stint teaching art in the Bronx, he applied for a job at Monticello High School in 1993.
"I sent out 250 resumes, from which I got three interviews and two acceptances," he says.
"I took the job at Monticello High 25 years ago and have been here ever since. So I have a pretty short resume," he laughs.
Plein Air painting is the act of painting outdoors, and it is his preferred style.
"I was fortunate to learn from Charles Movalli in Gloucester, Mass., in the 1980s," Brooks says.
Gloucester was the center of the Plein Air movement in the United States, and Movalli was a pillar of the Cape Ann artist community.
In the early days, Gloucester's wharves were lined with painters.
"However, Plein Air painting has made a big comeback in the last 10 to 15 years because of generous donors and collectors and the rise of competitive painting," he says.
"Yes, I have to submit my work online and a jury decides if I am accepted," Brooks says.
Along with dozens of others; at his most recent competition, more than 300 artists applied and 58 were chosen to compete.
"I am like a traveling band, framing and painting out of the back of my truck," he says.
"It's a very intensive day with little time for freedom," Brooks says.
Some of the competitions last a few days and some last a few weeks.
Brooks has been accepted into the two most prestigious contests: The Cape Ann Plein Air competition in Massachusetts and Plein Air Easton on Maryland's Eastern Shore.
"In Easton I got an honorable mention in the Quick Draw competition," he says.
Still, it all comes back to his students.
"I'm a people person, and I learn as much from my students as they learn from me," he says.