Seeking Calm and Hope Through Nature

In these times of quarantine, we are surrounded by uncertainty and loss everyday - even if we are fortunate enough to still be employed… My entire life, I have found great comfort in connecting with nature. Research shows that being in or even just viewing images or artwork of nature can reduce stress, anxiety, anger, and contribute to your physical well-being including decreased blood-pressure or muscle tension. Before I heard and read theories related to “Forest Bathing”, the benefits of gardening, or taking care of house plants - I was doing this because it just made me feel better.

As my art making has developed over the years, the presence of nature has been consistent. Even after moving to New York City, with limited “nature”, I have sought out every opportunity to connect with and appreciate a beautiful allée of street trees, a sunrise/ sunset from the waterfront, a view of the rippling water from one of our many bridges; also the city parks, public and private gardens, and forested areas through the 5-boroughs and beyond.

In the last few months, I have found great comfort in daily walks through our local forest with my dog Stanley. As a regular practice I sometimes take photos during the walks as inspiration for future paintings. In the desire to create an almost-daily-ritual, I have been making small watercolor paintings I call “sketches”. Each sketch expresses a moment of beauty during one of those walks. The sketches are for my well-being, and also in hopes by sharing these sketches of nature with friends and others I can help brighten someone else’s day. I hope we can all find small moments of beauty everyday to help us connect to the present in a meaningful way that bring hope for a better future.

“Spring Beauty” - a flowering dogwood tree. I love the whimsical white petals as they almost glow in the late afternoon sun, and shift back-and-forth from the wind.

“Squirrel Watching” - my dog loves to stand on fallen trees to watch for squirrels.

Color + Light: To evoke stillness, energy of the city and connection to the natural world

These works individually and collectively seek to evoke a sense of quiet and serenity, and capture the universal yet intimate experience of specific landscape typologies, through use of color, day-light-time, and sense of movement or stillness. The horizon line plays an important role serving as an anchor within the image, and additionally in several paintings provides a datum for continuity between the image set.

(Above) Color + Light: Magic Carpet Ride (2018)

I began with a series of abstracted color studies, created as digital images, which are based on a collection of landscape photographs. These are labeled based on “time of day” or “light descriptions” in an attempt to categorize and group the photos into series.

(Above) A series of digital color studies taken from photographs (from left to right): night/dusk/daytime, stormy palette, sunset palette, sunset color study for individual painting.

Each painting is the culmination of many hours, days, and years spent observing daily or seasonal patterns of my immediate landscape. For example, the oil painting “Urban Lights: blue orange grey” comes from many cycling journeys through the heart of New York City up to the Palisades in New York and New Jersey. Often times these trips begin early - as dawn stretches and glows across the horizon; the journey then ends in quiet dusk with the backdrop of racing beams of light passing from all directions. This painting captures the multifaceted energy of the city and connection to elements of the natural world. It provides the opportunity for quiet, stillness, and reflection amongst the hectic frenzy of urban movement and life.

(Above) Color + Light (left to right): Confluence, Through the Trees, Urban Lights: Blue Orange + Grey

The series includes abstracted scenes covering a spectrum from urban to deep forest. In each there are lyrical moments which speak to life and human connection. A horizon line across the works provides a consistent datum, and indicates the fundamental connection between even the most disparate landscapes.

(Above) Color + Light: Color palettes showing seasonal change within an urban forest