Witness to Splendor

Afternoon Trees

  oil on panel

"Poets write for a single reason; to give witness to splendor."

William Carlos Williams

"Each venture 

is a new beginning ...

... what there is to conquer

By strength and submission, has already been dis-

covered

Once or twice, or several times, by men whom one

cannot hope

To emulate - but there is no competition - 

There is only the fight to recover what has been lost

And found and lost again and again..."

T.S. Eliot

Anyone who has ever attempted to make a painting from direct observation in the outdoors understands that "each venture is a new beginning' - sometimes painfully so. But it is the splendor of finding oneself immersed in the visual/physical chaos that is our surroundings that drives a painter to constantly look for form and understanding and fight to recover and capture some small evidence of the attempt.  It is the best we can hope for and worthy of our full embrace. Offered here is a golden afternoon amongst friends all involved in the same fight Eliot refers to and every one of us awe-struck at the splendor Williams spoke of. Enjoy!