Hudson River Highlands

Remarkably, Dennis Kirby’s Hudson River Highlands maintains a degree of flatness while simultaneously establishing a powerful sense of depth. As an appreciator of painting, who has never attempted to pick up a brush in earnest (I wish I could, but sadly my artistic skills lie elsewhere), I cannot pinpoint precisely where the flatness derives. However, I can make some guesses: the blue hues describing the mountain are rich but sufficiently subdued and uniform that they reject some measure of three-dimensionality. On the other hand, the foreground noticeably recedes into the distance with attention to detail and a variety of form that evokes depth and space. All brought together with a beautiful crown of clouds visually in between the two states described above, Hudson River Highlands is an impressive and original landscape painting.