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To write about my work is to explain feelings. It is way too easy to get philosophical or deeply mysterious about it all, which in the end, will likely not mean much to anyone. So I'll forego that particular route: I grew up living on a large private estate in New York, where my father worked. I started painting birds at nine years of age. My first landscape painting was also watercolor done at close to the same age. A view out my bedroom window was done while I recuperated from a spring sickness. I spent all my available time out-of-doors. I was given lots of freedom to explore the world of nature and it happily became my whole life. I was something of a loner, though I did share much with my pal Don and my little English Boarder Terrier, Lattie. Most of my teenage years were spent enjoying that rite of passage. |
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into my twenties I was married with children and just beginning a long
career in museum work. These two things coincided to rekindle a more mature
interest in painting. My parents and my wife have given me major encouragement.
I'm basically a self-taught painter. I have taken courses at universities
though the most important art experiences occurred working along side mature,
accomplished artist friends at the American Museum of Natural History in
New York and in other cities I've lived and worked in. My work is all nature
derived and has lead me from the representational to impressionistic to
abstract-expressionism. I will on occasion revert back, simply to reaffirm
and for sheer pleasure. I work directly from sketches or solely from the
mind. I build a painting piece by piece and usually have no clear idea
in which direction a work will take me. Luckily that makes the whole process
constantly interesting.
Alan R. Munro |
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