Another of the Pandemic Series, this one began with a shockingly brilliant cyan blue undercoat. As Nicholas allowed the painting to emerge, he began to experiment. Adding a liquid medium to the deeper blues created two variables, in the center, he allowed it to strip away the pigment, like water flowing down a pane of glass, with a darker blue almost outlining the revealed white board beneath. Perhaps you can see the evidence of brush strokes at the edges, making new marks and mottled shapes over the altered surface of the original coat. For a few weeks the work remained only blue and then, quite dramatically, as though echoing the incredible autumn we experienced here in the Finger Lakes, more pigment was added.

Upon further study, I am drawn to the symbolism of that which is no longer solid. The blue, powerful and underlying everything else, is in motion. Is it glacier melt, are they human tears of grief and loss, are the bold brush strokes of blue trying desperately to reinforce what feels normal in a season so utterly unnormal?

I could stay only focused on the blue; but that is, perhaps, not the full story. The painting demands that I embrace the energy in the foreground, the vibrancy of the reds and oranges bursting from the more muted shades of green. It reminds me…this is growth, this is change, this is a new season…