Madawasca Pond, Oil, 18x30" 2000

Imagine being one of the first people in a hundred years to canoe remote Quebec Brook. It is a small, narrow, winding stream that twists its way from Madawasca Pond, through bogs and wetlands, over beaver dams and rapids, along eskers topped by tall white pines, through dense woodlands, finally to tumble into the St. Regis River. I did. And so far I have done one painting of the thousands of water lilies that were blooming on Madawasca Pond the day I paddled my solo canoe around her perimeter. I would like to share the peace and solitude and beauty that I experienced on that day with the people of the region, people who often just think of the local landscape as a place to hunt, hike, ski, snowmobile or cut firewood. In recent years the state has purchased thousands of acres of land, outright, or through conservation easements, that had previously been in private hands. Mountains, lakes, rivers, forests - much of it now guaranteed constitutionally“forever wild” and accessible to all the citizens of the state. In the past I have studied the artists of the 19th century who painted the Adirondacks and St. Lawrence River Valley, and attempted to visit some of the same places that inspired them and produce my own original works of art. Now I would like to take my artistic vision into these new “forever wild” lands and create a series of totally new paintings. I’d like to try to communicate the awe and respect I have for nature. To illustrate the silence of an isolated pond or the majesty of a great blue heron among the pickerel weed. To be the first to show these new lands through an artists eyes.
 

"Quebec Brook/Madawasca Pond" Part of the Santa Clara Tract Oil on linen, 50 x 66", 2001	Study: "Santa Clara Flow, Looking North The Flow has always been open to the public, but now much of the land is too. Watercolor, 10 x 13", 2001	Study: "Santa Clara Flow, Looking South Painted from the same location as the previous study. Watercolor, 9 x 13", 2001	Study: "Lake Lila from Mount Frederica" Located near Little Tupper Lake, part of the recently acquired Whitney Properties. Watercolor, 11 x 14", 2000

1999 Grant: A Contemporary View of Historic Landscapes of the Adirondacks & St. Lawrence Valley

1997 Grant: A Personal Exploration of 19th C. & Contemporary Landscapes of the Adirondacks & St. Lawrence Valley
Presentations produced as a result of a New York State Council of the Arts Decentralization Grant, administered in Jefferson, Lewis and St. Lawrence Countiesby the North Country Library System.
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