Untitled Landscape, Bellport (No.256) 1990

Arthur Pinajian made this untitled landscape painting, one of many, with oils. I love to imagine Arthur in the act of painting, maybe outside or perhaps from memory, working fast, standing up. See those confident strokes of yellow, like sunshine bursting through the trees? It's as if he's trying to capture not just what he sees, but what he feels, the very air and light of Bellport. I sympathize, painting is a struggle to transfer something from inside to outside. The blues and reds scattered throughout give the whole thing a kind of restless energy, a feeling like the wind is picking up, or maybe like the memory of the place is jostling to come forward. The paint is applied with a thick impasto, so you can almost feel the texture of the brushstrokes. I wonder what other artists he looked at? Maybe someone like de Kooning? It's exciting when artists like Arthur engage in this ongoing conversation across time, and inspire one another’s creativity. Each painting is a step forward in the embodied expression of uncertainty.