‘En Plein Air’ — the term refers to painting outdoors. My watercolors are a combination of light and color capturing a point in time and space. I started my watercolor study at the Woodstock School of Art in NY under Staats Fasoldt. It must have been the influence of the Hudson River School energy which hooked me. Early on we explored local sites. At the same time, my technical career afforded me the opportunity to travel. I take my field kit with me wherever I go because getting to ‘see’ a place by painting it is a joy and a challenge.
Through my travels (including hiking trips abroad) I explored the roots of Plein Air work. On an MFA summer course in France I found inspiration in the Barbizon school, as well as the Impressionist painters. Both movements come from the radical thought of going out of the studio.
The most challenging part for me is the beginning. I need to wander and find a place that inspires, and also a location where I will be able to sit for the duration of the painting. The next part is the drama, and I must work quickly because the light changes so fast. When fully in the process, I am unaware of anything outside of that. Once, when painting in Austria on a cross country ski trip, I couldn’t figure out why the paint was acting strangely. Then I realized that the paint had frozen! It made for a really interesting effect when I went inside.
I have studied painting, oils and pastels at the MFA School, De Cordova and several other art forums, but for painting, I always return to watercolor. I believe it is the beautiful transparency of the colors on a white sheet of paper that draws me back. More recently I have begun glassblowing at the North Cambridge Glass School and Corning Studio. Watercolor is 2 dimensional and glass is 3 dimensional, but I believe the two are related in the ways they capture a feeling through light and color.
