A.P.A.

Having grown up just on the fringes of the Adirondack Park in NY State, I couldn't help but seeing some of my old stomping grounds in this vivid oil painting. Painted by Tsukigata Nahiko, this particular painting is just a slight bit unusual for the artist-potter though not so far afield as to not be instantly recognizable as his work. The colors evoke a rich fall scene of craggy hills and clouds moving quickly past, the brushwork appears fast and determined and overall displays a fine, bold visage typical of his work. I think one of the real attributes of this painting is its ability to touch on the experiences of anyone looking at it, it could be anywhere in Japan, the Adirondacks, the Scottish Highlands or just about  at any place the viewer has been. Though I really love Tsukigata's Fuji and other Japanese landscape paintings and even those painted in and around Paris, I am always partial to a painting that makes me feel the artist came to my home and thought it worth immortalizing it in oil on canvas. Every time I think of this painting the beauty of the great forest in my backyard will always spring to mind.

"Thousands of tired, nerve-shaken, over-civilized people are beginning to find out that going to the mountains is going home; that wilderness is a necessity; and that mountain parks and reservations are useful not only as fountains of timber and irrigating rivers but as fountains of life."   John Muir 1898

(*Adirondack Park Agency)