A work taking its root from the bark. This painting is a meditation on the island of Nantucket, Massachusetts and the Essex whaler story.

The painting started from found material, found lingering in the studio. The bark of a birch tree collected locally, became in time the wide dunes of Nantucket island. A weak and wintry sun looms over Great Point lighthouse.

Verso: the whaler Essex is dimly visible through the linen canvas as if in a rolling icy fog descending from the Grand Banks. Whether our encounter is in 1820 or the present day – the painting does not make clear.

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Nantucket (2021)
Oil on linen and birch bark
40x30xm
POA

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Postscript: this work is designed for shelf display. Patrons are invited to flip the work to see the ship Essex painted beneath and which by a curiosity of parallax, will also lend itself to a ghostly appreciation of movement recto.