Hudson Valley

The View as Enclosure

The View as Enclosure

In the autumn of 2001 I had an experience at the Mattituck Museum, in Waterbury, Connecticut. The exhibit, Images of Contentment: John Frederick Kensett and the Connecticut Shore was on display upstairs. His Hudson River School style is typically described as Luminism, its hallmark a tranquil scene with evanescent light, and in Kensett’s case -more often than not an image of the conjunction of water and land. The impact of each work is an experience of restfulness and calm, a bath of even, transcendental light in the reassuring, supportive bosom of nature. 

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Autumn Opus



Two weeks ago Betsy and I went up to Saugerties to walk around Opus Forty, sculptor Harvey Fite's dry laid stone project at the base of the Catskills. We had been by before, but always too near closing time or on the wrong day so that we never had the opportunity to wander around. If you go, plan to spend about an hour or two, and by all means, go in the autumn.







The frog pond. See below.




























The museum has little to offer, but the video is worth it, if only for its ancient VHS quality.