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| Casco Bay Ferry |
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| Rackstraw Downes, Farm Buildings Near the Rio Grande: West End of the Barn, P.M., |
The latest painting, "Casco Bay Ferry," took me in a different direction as far as painterly process. I applied the paint in uniform blocks or dabs, with minimal gestures or lines, using a palette knife to flatten and coalesce adjoining dabs. The over-all effect is an impressionistic one I am told, although I was not sure that was where it would end up. It's something I'd like to try on a larger scale canvas with a freer palette, just to see. On another note, Alex and I took in the Rackstraw Downes show at the Portland Museum of Art. We both enjoyed the show immensely and found the works very accessible and remarkable. Having spent a couple years in Kansas running on desolate roads there with a backdrop of dust, stone, scrub shrub, rusting equipment, lonesome structures and big sky, I felt particularly one with Mr. Downes paintings of the southwest like the one pictured above. They offer a solitary man's view into these corners of our country that have their own character and aesthetic.
