A Bend in the River

  

A Bend in the River

Oil on canvas, 12x48

sold

I painted this a week ago. I stood behind a Dumpster, using it as a windbreak, on the top of a high bank overlooking the Wallkill River. It was about 10 degrees, and the wind was blowing hard enough as it was, and harder off the top of the river, and I was as cold as a person can be and still be painting.

When I had enough on the canvas to understand where I was going, I had painted for more than an hour and could do nothing to get warm. I packed up and sat in the car for a while, with the heater on high, before heading off.

Last winter, I painted outdoors nearly every day. I was cold, but I was not this cold. I don't know what has changed. I guess that this winter, I am just wimpy.

This Wallkill flows north between two south-flowing rivers. Here, it curves and bends through the village of Montgomery, home of the Wallkill River School, where I'll be showing in March with Shawn Dell Joyce. I hope that those of you who are in New York can get to the show - in part to see this painting, because it is really quite spectacular, and try as I might, I can't get it to reproduce correctly on the computer. I will reshoot it again on a cloudy day and see if that does it - but for the time being, this is as close as I'm going to get.

Thank you for reading.