Portraits of A Place

“The search for a meaningful painting subject is a search for ourselves.” Robert Reynolds

“What to paint?” is a question always on the artist’s mind. Sometimes the answer comes after long searches. Most painters have stories about driving for hours in search of an inspiring setting. Sometimes the answer means simply to select for a plenitude of possibilities, because if you are a painter everything looks like a possible painting. Many of the great painters covered a variety of subjects before (and often even after) they found their signature motive. What would Monet be without the waterlilies, Van Gogh without the sunflowers, Sargent without the society portraits, or Vermeer without the domestic scenes?

Painting day after day on Horsebarn Hill allows leisurely time to explore some subjects: the curvature of the hill from different angles, the dance of shadows at various times during the days, the shift in colors with the seasons, the ever-changing show of light. The Horsebarn Hill series has started as atmospheric paintings with the light as the main subject and the setting as a circumstantial element. Gradually, the location became more important, and the paintings transformed into portraits of a place.