eileen curtis israel
I paint atmospheric land- and waterscapes inspired by the ever-changing light of the Catskills and Martha's Vineyard. I am interested in not just what I see, but in what I feel.
I aim to evoke the sensation of a place, as opposed to reproducing every detail of that place.
Nature works on me. I walk a lot around my 17-acre Bethel, NY, property. I also spend time in Martha's Vineyard in the summer. In both locations, I am open to flashes of feeling and transformation. Nature stirs: a squinting sky, a dark deluge of purple clouds, a glint of silver on the water. It's all fleeting, but that's what makes it matter.
I bring those sensations, along with my memories and imagination, back to my Bethel studio and go to work. I like things to be loose and spontaneous, which is why I rely on water-soluble paints: watercolor, gouache and high-flow acrylics. My quick, gestural brushstrokes and the force of water itself create my waterscapes. In the summer, I take out the hose and let the water wash over my painting surfaces. In the winter, the bathtub faucet does the trick. Colors and forms bleed into each other--or disappear altogether. A smooth rock becomes a shadow. A wash of lavender spills into a sap green hedge. A road becomes a bridge. As in life, everything changes.
In a larger sense, I want to internalize the external--for myself and for others who will see my work and make it their own. But what really counts to me is sensation.
As poet John Keats once said: "The point of diving in a lake is not immediately to swim to shore, but to be in the lake, to luxuriate in the sensation of water. You do not work the lake out; it is an experience beyond thought."
