More widely traveled than their creator, some paintings by Warren artist Thomas Paquette have earned their passage for a second time to an embassy in Russia, this time in Moscow. Three of Paquette’s largest recent works, one of which was on the cover of the catalog for his traveling museum show On Nature’s Terms, are now hanging in the grand salon of the Spaso House, the New Empire style mansion that has served as the U.S. Ambassador’s residence in Moscow since 1933. Ambassador John Tefft and State Department art curator Robert Soppelsa chose the paintings, contemporary images of the great American landscape, to be the central, major works in the mansion. The paintings will remain in Moscow through Tefft’s tenure, at the end of 2016.

Over the years, 38 of Paquette’s paintings have been chosen for display in 17 diplomatic posts around the world, including Asia, Europe, Africa and Central and South America. From 2001 to 2005, two of his large works were hung at the embassy in St. Petersburg, Russia, and were displayed when then-President Bush visited. But this is the largest installation of his work, given the scale of these current paintings all together; “Late Vermilion Light” by itself is over six feet in length.

A lot closer to home and for a shorter time, a substantial group of Paquette’s oil paintings is now on display at Gross McCleaf Gallery, in the Rittenhouse Square section of Philadelphia. His solo show there is titled Wilderness and runs through Oct. 3. Many of the displayed works traveled for the last two years to museums in California, Indiana and New York, celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Wilderness Act of 1964. The subjects of the paintings are protected federal lands around the nation, including Warren County’s own Allegheny Islands Wilderness. New paintings were added to the Philadelphia show, making up for works that have gone to private collections after the museum shows.