Robert, I'm glad you like the interview. I also thought he and I would meet face to face again to discuss each other's paintings. His work is amazingly good. I enjoyed viewing your work also. Keep it up. It's very good. Mike

It's a great painting too, by the way! Hope your trip was a good one. Mike

I really like this photo of you with your painting in the Maine studio. Thanks for posting it! Mike

Such a wonderful painting. Very nice! I love the lithograph also. Thanks for posting! Mike

Thanks so much, Dan. Your portrait/figures in an environment paintings are amazing. Very wonderful work. I love watching your work develop over the years!

Thanks, Ron. I'd say that my clouds/sky series are composites based on specific moments and place. I took perhaps 75 photos of this specific sunset, though I didn't attempt to copy a photograph when I made my painting. The sky changed rapidly due to strong breezes. When I made my painting, I referred to all of the photos, but thought more about making a painting - composition, color, shape, value. My process is perhaps based more on memory of an event, though I believe my more successful paintings are approached as abstractions. That is, I ask myself how do shapes come together? How do I play one color off of another. What painting approach feels more "real" or believable to me when the elements add up. I work a lot from observation as well, and enjoy simply watching the sky and memorizing simple things and types of light. My NY cityscapes with big skies were all painted within a 2 hour span off time from life, so I found that I had to commit to something at some point and attempt to make it work in total. That my current paintings must look like the visual event actually occurred seems important to me. Light must be specific for the painting to appear right to me. I'm enjoying making this series and hope to exhibit them together eventually to see how it looks. Hope you are doing well! Mike

Yes, I think that because the Civil War was fought here, the period architecture has a certain meaning for me. Most of my sky paintings have been based on views from my land, which is also less than a mile from another Civil War battlefield. So that period is always in the back of my mind. I recently learned who owned our land in 1800 - a family friend of Andrew Jackson, who I'm told came around here often. My land-owner built a racetrack near here. So much history. I agree that fine painting, from life or otherwise has nothing to do with photography. Color and painting issues have to do with "touch" and paint application to create certain spaces of interest. So many decisions must be settled in the process. For me, it's all about painting. Otherwise I'd turn to photography if that wasn't the case. Once I was painting from life in a park in Brooklyn and some guy asked me why I didn't just take a photo. He didn't understand the difference. Thanks! Mike

I can see the Dickinson connection in this drawing. He did some wonderful drawings of old houses, and I recall that he had a strong interest in the Civil War. This house was built the year after the Civil War ended in Franklin, TN, which is actually the site of a Civil War battle. That was on my mind when I started this drawing two years ago. I discovered it in an older sketchbook of mine and saw that it needed some work, so I went at it again. I agree with your analysis about shape and value. I rely heavily on shape to get through spaces in my work. It's something that I look for in everyone's work. Your own work has marvelous shape relationships that I very much enjoy. Thanks and best wishes, Mike

I agree entirely, Kathy. Thanks - Mike