Alan McKnight
Artist Statement
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I began art lessons when I was five. Later I minored in art at Oberlin College. When urban conflicts and the war in Vietnam heated up, I took up graphic arts and illustration in New Haven, CT, and continued that work in Saugerties, NY, where I ran my own graphic arts studio. In 1980 I returned to the study of painting under Robert Angeloch.
I am an active member of the Woodstock Artists Association and have received several awards there as well as in Teton County, ID, where I lived for 13 years.
I have always favored watercolor -- for its affects, its natural colors, the light coming through its pigments, the ease of working in the field, and its durability. (Acid-free paper can long outlast canvas, and I use the most permanently stable paints available.
I'm currently concentrating on simpler compositions with strongly contrasting light values. I strive to compose paintings that work as abstract images but also have realistic meaning. I try to share an appreciation for our habitat that gets lost in the hurry-up culture of commerce and politics. The race for fame and posterity is pretty futile if there isn't enough stewardship of the air, water and soil to sustain life.