In 2018, I was inspired to take an intensive plein air workshop with Dan Graziano, a painter I admire. I packed up my art supplies into my 1966 Shasta camper and drove to Castine, Maine. It’s a beautiful little town. I camped at a state forest, but I didn’t spend much time there. I was intensively learning the art of plein air painting. There’s a concentration that comes from attempting to capture a moment in time. Too much fussing, and the lighting will have changed; The same subject is there, but the feeling can be completely different. So plein air is about capturing the essence and not getting caught up in detail.

After the workshop, I came back home and took several weeks to build on what I learned. This is one of a series of paintings I did of scenes that caught my fancy around the Berkshires at that time.