Journeys

Autumn on Route 82. Oil on oil on canvas, 10x20

I painted this one in the fall, on Route 82, heading toward Colchester. It was a stormy October day, and there wasn't much light in the sky. The leaves beneath the trees on the far hillside were bright, and the grasses in the foreground were bright, but even those spots were more burnished than brilliant.

This painting has been sitting in the living room since October. I knew there was something in it, so I didn't paint over it. I just didn't know how to find whatever that something was.

Last week, I traveled to the blog of Loriann Signori - http://loriannsignori.blogspot.com/. Loriann is a pastel painter who lives in Silver Spring, Maryland. She paints every day, lovely, soft pieces of great depth, often of bodies of water, particularly a specific reservoir. From her site, I wandered to the blog of Brian Eppley - http://brianeppley.blogspot.com/ - who paints mainly with a palette knife.

I was drawn to the work of these artists, and to a conversation I had with Dov, my brother-in-law, at the opening of my show. We were talking about the difference between painting and drawing, and how painting really sort of fails when it becomes drawing.

I took the autumn painting down into the basement, and picked up a palette knife and went to work, using the original piece as an underpainting, and slathering the paint on, richly and thickly. It felt liberating, and I felt strong, painting that way.