Midstream

One of the artist’s many pleasures is discovering a vision unfurl of a subject observed over time. This collection of river and stream paintings spans a fifteen-year period, 1994-2008. The paintings portray moments spent by the banks of the Gallows Run stream and where it empties at the Narrows of the Delaware River, at the foot of the Nockamixon Palisades.

This is the landscape of Upper Bucks County Pennsylvania that is my backyard. My old springhouse is a source of this stream that meets the river two miles downhill. I embrace the opportunity to follow in the footsteps of the Pennsylvania Impressionists who have painted some of the same views. I began to draw knee-deep, midstream in the river, and paint the joyous moments when light dapples the landscape.

Today, the interaction of man’s global activity with our Bucks County landscape is far too clear. My recent work brings witness to the destruction that storm cycles have brought to our region. The stream, river and Delaware Canal have gone through drastic change with the rash of flooding. The rushing water washed streambed and river road away. The historic canal is now dry, the canal wall blown through. Rebuilding continues on the Gallows Run as it does in so many parts of our country. The light on the water may the same, but the shadow of nature’s power is unmistakable. The aftermath of recent disasters calls us all to renew attention to stewardship of the places we call home.