High Point Cafe at the Allen Lane Train Station is a popular meeting place for area residents to relax with a handmade pastry, sip a locally roasted coffee and schmooze over politics, personal lives and the most recent sports team letdown.

But from now until Nov. 1, it is also a place where you can see a stunning exhibit by Chestnut Hill nature artist Richard Metz.

Metz, 66, is an artist, father, husband and former Abington School District art teacher. He is a writer and activist with a focus on environmental and social issues who graduated from Tyler School of Art in 1980 and earned an master of fine arts degree from the Maine College of Art & Design in 2000.

His artwork since then has included sculpture and masks, installations, performance, street theater, printmaking, drawing, illustrated stories and painting on nontraditional materials. He has exhibited widely, and his works are in many collections, both private and corporate.

Metz has participated in artist residencies around the country each summer, in places as diverse as Nova Scotia, Philadelphia, Washington State, South Carolina and Massachusetts, where he has created ephemeral outdoor installations using natural nontoxic pigments on trees that do not harm the trees.

His time in nature and concern for the planet has driven his environmental activism to preserve open spaces and advocate for reducing plastic waste, pesticides and fossil fuels.

“The theme of my work for the last six years dwells on trying to get closer to nature, particularly in Northwest Philadelphia and the nearby suburbs of Flourtown, Whitemarsh and Blue Bell,” he told the Local last week. “I grew up near this area and feel the most interest and sense of purpose and comfort in getting closer to my surroundings.

“I chose crows (and ravens) for many of my art subjects because they are around me, very loud, very smart and have been involved with most cultures with history and mythology,” he continued. “The local ‘murder of crows’ (a collective noun for a flock or assembly of crows) sometimes comes next to my house and makes a racket, knowing that I’ll come out and feed them.”

Two recent books by Metz, “Crow Meadow/Meadow Crows” and “A Murder of Crows,” combine original artwork and poetry that considers the birds’ behavior and mythology.

Metz begins the process of creating art outside in the meadows and woods and completes it in his studio. Before painting, he sits for a while, enjoying the breeze, color, movements, sounds and smells of the meadows and woods. He uses gouache-opaque watercolors because they are less toxic and easy to paint over.

Metz is perhaps best known for an ephemeral painted tree installation, completed in June 2023, in the woods of Abington Art Center. It involved six months of planning and preparation and almost two months of painting. Metz used paint made with natural nontoxic pigments and eggs.

“I do not want anyone to get the idea that the paint is hurting the trees,” Metz said. “The paintings gradually fade away in two to three years, depending on weather conditions.”

“One goal of mine is to understand and give the works a sense of place. Growing up and living near here, I am focused on Southeastern Pennsylvania meadows and woods,” he continued. “These lands were stolen from the Lenape Indians, worked as agriculture, [were] sites of battles in the Revolutionary War, part of landed estates and finally purchased by public entities for preservation. As a way of reciprocal thanks, I have also become an ardent environmentalist.”

Metz works with the Weavers Way Plastics Reduction Task Force and Quiet Clean Philly to phase out gas-powered leaf blowers. He has participated in protests and attended meetings about the proposed data center in Plymouth Township.

He describes his work as “a combination of the structures of nature and my own dance.” Much of his artistic focus on crows and ravens explores his belief that the birds have unique thoughts, make creative and calculated actions based on past experiences, and have strong social bonding and hierarchies.

“I really enjoy stories of their long connection with humanity from the Indigenous cultures, through European, Asian and American societies up to present day,” he said.

Metz also maintains an ongoing presence with the Borrelli Gallery and Little Gallery, both in Chestnut Hill. He paints and writes about 12 to 14 hours a week.

“The works are better in real life and hanging next to each other,” he said. “I like the cafe setting because it’s alive and busy; people come more than once; it’s less formal and more of people’s daily lives.”

For more information, visit mistermetz.com. Len Lear can be reached at lenlear@chestnuthilllocal.com.