The Ocean Series was painted between 2018 and 2020 and originated on the East End (Eothen) of Long Island.
The River Series are pieces painted from photographs taken during the pandemic on the banks of the Hudson River facing north at different times of day, on different days, with varying tide, current and wind conditions. The compositions are halved by the horizon, separating sky and water, and a gap in the distance cleaving the eastern and western shores. Today that gap is joined by the Rhinecliff/Kingston suspension bridge. The bridge is missing in these works to suggest how it may have appeared to Henry Hudson as he sailed north 400 years ago in search of a secret route to Asia.
Indigenous humans living by the river long before Hudson arrived called it Muhheakantuc; ‘water that flows in both directions'. If you were to drift down the river on a log, you would get nowhere fast and all around you the scenery would be in flux.
Richard Marr
