Discovering truth by building on previous discoveries..

I continually look to the great master painters of the past for inspiration and guidance.  Some of my favorite landscape painters are George Inness, Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, Charles-Francois Daubigny and Henri Rousseau.

One biographer said of Corot's depiction of nature is that what the master sought to render was "not so much Nature herself as the love he bore her".  That is incredibly beautiful and romantic.  I will work the rest of my life to render my intense affection, connection and gratitude for Nature.

I love Inness' credo which was "The true purpose of the painter is simply to reproduce in other minds the impression which a scene has made upon him.  A work of art is not to instruct, not to edify, but to awaken emotion.  Its real greatness consists in the quality and the force of this emotion".

I believe the great difficulty of the artist is making a painting look very real without losing the initial emotional response to his subject.  The artists that I feel I have the greatest connection with have this in common.

Harriman State Park

Here's the underpainting for the piece I am currently working on.  I'm working from several sketches I did onsite and some photographs.

"..omit the superfluous, grasp the essentials and arrange them into a more powerful and significant whole".   ~Carlson

Quote

"Most of us have two lives.  The life we live and the unlived life within us.  Between the two stands resistance."  ~Steven Pressfield, author of The War of Art

Freeport, ME

I took a trip to Maine in September and found the most exquisite coastline.  There is so much beauty in its rocky forest-lined shores .   Here's one from Freeport, ME.

NEW STUDIO

I'm thrilled to announce that my new studio is now open!  

http://www.studiomArtSchool.com

Wet Paint

I love the feeling I get when I start a new painting...  it's something between total euphoria and unadulterated fear.

Work in Progress

New Work

There is so much beauty in the mundane.  This is the border of a pasture in Pennsylvania where I walk frequently.  I never really take particular notice of this spot.. it's simply the edge of the pasture on the way home.  On this September day I found such beauty in this lovely tree with the cumulus clouds hovering beyond.  This is the awe-inspiring vision that I seek in my pursuit of a subject or composition.

American Women Artists

I am so excited and honored that my painting, Peaceful Reflections, was accepted into American Women Artist's Online Juried Competition!  

(I'll post a better photo)

Rick Piloco Class - Grand Central Academy of Art

Here's a picture of Rick's first demo of 2013.

This is another painting Rick did of the same model.  Photo courtesy of Dean Adams.

A Meaningful Quote

The aim of every artist is to arrest motion, which is life, by artificial means and hold it fixed so that a hundred years later, when a stranger looks at it, it moves again since it is life.
 ~ William Faulkner

Ilya Yefimovich Garshin

Ilya Repin is one of my favorite artists.  His emotionally charged paintings are above all, honest.  In my opinion, this is a quality that make the most outstanding artists and truly fascinating works of art.  Below is a painting of Vsevolod Mikhailovich Garshin, a man that was plagued with the suicide of his father and brother and who struggled with mental illness himself.  Vsevolod succumbed to the darkness at the age of thirty-three and committed suicide.

Repin was an incredibly talented artist who captured the sorrow in the eyes of this lost soul and remained faithful and honest to the emotion behind the facade.  Honesty is what I will strive for in my work for the rest of my life.  I am fortunate enough to live forty minutes from The Met where this beloved painting resides..  I visit it often.