View of the Channel, 6" x 6" Oil on Canvas

I think summer in the northeast United States is one of the most beautiful places in this country. The colors are so true and intense and the reflections in the water are very beautiful and a challenge to paint. Where I live there are lots of lakes and they seem to constantly change because of the wind and reflection. I have read that artists like to live and paint by the water, because colors are much truer because of the reflected light, and I think I agree with them. Some of the lakes are more remote than others, and I always wonder just how they would have looked before white people came. I'm sure they were very prestine and beautiful. There is alot of history here around the lakes involving the American Indians who were here first, and I enjoy finding and illustrating the stories of the various tribes. I have studied indegenous art for many years and it's so interesting to me because of the colors that each tribe used. I can look at the environment here and see the correlation of the colors and patterns the tribes from this area used. Here the colors were very true and intense, and the patterns the Indians used here resembled nature as we see it now, or realistic, like leaves and flowers; in the southeast they lightened the color pallett just a little with more yellows, but the style was pretty much the same; the northwest colors are a very dark hue of true colors, and thier patterns are what I would call modern with very stylized lines; and the southwest the colors are pastel. Western and southwestern art and patterns seem to be more abstract. I remember when I visited Canyon De Chelly. The rocks were pinkish-red, the water turquoise, the sky shades of the lighter hues of blue, and the grass geen to yellow. It was very beautiful and striking. You can tell from looking at a piece of Indian art what part of the country the person's tribe was from that made it.