I still cycle between landscape and and my more abstract monochrome works on paper. These two directions begin to feel more related as time goes by. While they haven’t quite merged, my recent subject matter and materials bring them closer than ever.

I felt a real sense of freedom as I began painting on large pieces of prepared paper in the new Clermont studio. I loved the way the oil paint glided on and began experimenting with a combination of oil paint and oil sticks. Landscapes that had eluded me while I was living in Germantown with that amazing view were suddenly available through a combination of memory, imagination, photos and plein air drawings. In retrospect, I think my earlier work was infused with a sense of yearning. Based in New York City since the 1970’s, I had spent decades painting other people’s views, whether upstate or further afield. When I finally had my own view in Germantown, that element of yearning disappeared from the work. 

Now one step removed from the source, I can finally paint that view, both larger and with abandon! My recent works on canvas borrow from a technique that Stephen uses. I’m priming the canvas first with gesso and then building smooth matt layers with acrylic modeling paste. I love the challenge of a new surface after all these years. It’s similar to working on hot pressed paper but with oil paint rather than oil pastels. Suddenly the paintings are making themselves as I reach back to the Germantown mountains and skies while pushing forward here in Clermont. Sometimes you can go back.