Close To Home
Several years ago, I climbed up a ladder in the Art Room of the New Bedford Public Library so I could peer down at the restoration in progress of Alfred Bierstadt’s massive painting Mount Sir Donald. It was impressive, but what stole my heart that day was a small painting on the far wall by another New Bedford painter, Charles Henry Gifford. Sunlight from a large side window made Coastal Scene with a Gundalow glow with an ethereal quality. I was captivated by the play of light on the surface and inspired by these New Bedford artists to find my own way to convey the timeless and luminous quality of the landscape that is my home. Looking beyond the imprint of the modern world on the Southcoast landscape, I began to imagine what these painters might have seen.
Gifford, Bierstsadt, and the Luminist and Hudson River School painters of that era conveyed the sublime quality of light with glazing, varnishing and fiercely guarded secret recipes. In Close to Home, I create a sense of atmosphere by applying age-old hand gilding techniques, wax and varnish to digitally created photographs printed on translucent vellum. The slow and exacting process gives me a sense of kinship with the artistry and craftsmanship of those who have come before me.
