Clam House Series

Clam House Series
I began the Clam House Series in 1990 out of a strong attraction to old, rural houses and the landscape surrounding them. The buildings appear to be integrated into the hills, trees, and sky. Perhaps the key ingredient of this series was painting on location: working so directly in the environment provided me with unparalleled visual information, adding a sense of energy and immediacy to the paintings. I call the collection by this name because the rural folk who live there seemed “happy as clams.” Now 15-20 years later, many of these homes have fallen into disrepair, or have been razed and the paintings remain to document those Appalachian dwellings. I've included The Friendship Oak painting in this series, though it was painted in Albany, Georgia, rather than the mountains of North Georgia, because it also has the integration of architecture and landscape. In the late 1990's, the tree was removed by the DOT for road expansion.