"One of the joys, and challenges, of plein air painting is to allow a painting to develop on its own terms, without insisting it stick to a preconceived image in my head. When I began this little oil sketch, I was most attracted to the subtle tones of the rocks along the stream and in the background. But I found that I simply couldn’t resist the immense tranquility of the scene nor the beauty of the water. The rocks became simplified and the subject switched to the beautiful play of light and color in the water and the overall mood of the scene".
November Reflections
"This scene along the Green River which I have painted repeatedly. It never fails to attract and challenge me. The play of the verticals of the trees against the diagonals of the water and hills, the ever-changing and abstract quality of the reflections, the very simple geometric structure underlying the complexity of the scene--they all push me to my limits as a painter. I understand now why Monet was so attracted to scene of trees along a river bank".
"The fields and meadows along Sloan Roadhave provided me with a nearly limitless supply of interesting scenes, in every season, at every time of day, and under any sort of weather. Over several winters, while driving down Sloan Road as the sun was setting, I noticed how it caught the end of a far meadow and the trees beyond. There was a tension between the timeless stillness of the scene and the quick, fleeting and fading light that simply demanded being captured in paint. Perhaps more than any work I’ve recently done, this painting shows the influence of one of my earliest favorites, George Inness".
