In painting, as in life, holding it together is not always easy. Things–compositions–are always threatening to fall apart and a painter’s task is to figure out how it all fits, keep a movement going through the painting, find pathways for the eye, and then keep the viewer’s interest for more than 5 seconds. I do not lie. Think about how long you look at a painting when you are at a museum or gallery. One one thousand, two one thousand…five seconds is along time! Anything longer is like hitting a home run. The bright bowl of light in the foreground is balanced with bright spots in the birch trees and in the far field, and I found a subtle, but weighty visual anchor point at the end of the path where it subtly hangs a right.
