How an Impressionist Painting Seeped into My Brain

Several years ago I had tacked up on my studio wall this Childe Hassam painting on a holiday card someone had sent me. I marveled at how he managed to capture that moment when the sun barely lights up a scene, and everything is in suffused in low light, all in mid-tones.

At Dusk (Boston Common at Twilight)
Oil on canvas, 42 x 60 in
Childe Hassam, 1885–86
(Image from MFA Boston)

That painting was NOT at the top of my mind when I embarked on my recent painting of a sunrise on a late fall, early winter day. I had long wanted to tackle a view looking down, and the lit-up foliage added dramatic effect At dawn, the sky held an indecisive color; a range of very pale colors, in fact.

Sunrise on Last Foliage, First Snow
Oil on canvas on archival panel, 20 x 16 in

Two weeks after I finished the painting I realized the influence. I had hardly looked at the card after I had moved my studio 4 years ago; it was on a back wall mostly out of my line of sight. Yet, it became clear that this was my homage to that Hassam painting. You never know what's percolating in your brain!