I live in a picture-postcard village, surrounded by a patchwork of agricultural landscape bordered to the west by fossil-laden, steep cliffs of Devonian limestone. The softly rolling land below the cliffs was once the edge of glacial lake, whose ground is a slurry of smooth round rocks encrusted in hard clay. Nevertheless, the region was settled by German tenant farmers in the 1700s and the fabric of history is still preserved in Dutch barns, small farms, and family names. Though the area seems to be turning inexorably into real estate, it is still possible to ride and walk through open countryside, much as people did in the nineteenth century.
This painting is of chicory encroaching on the fields of a sheep farm on Meadowdale Road in Guilderland, New York. I love the color of chicory, its stiff, yet random growth pattern, and the fact that the flowers bloom early today and then fade, before reblooming tomorrow.
For some time I've been wanting to start painting landscapes. Having my small food paintings off site for a couple of months has given me the clean slate I needed in the studio to start working in a new direction. The painting will be shown at the Albany Center Gallery members' show from January 6 to February 17, 2017. The opening reception will be January 6 from 5:00 to 9:00 p.m.