Painting Pine

Pine Shelf, oil on linen, 19 x 22 inches

I haven't stopped staring at this beautiful painting by Josephine Halvorson since she sent me the image. It's hard to tell where the painting begins and ends in this lovely photo. The layers of wood grain draw you right in, and then that window leads you out and beyond. What I love about Josephine's paintings is that they are simultaneously stark and cozy, abstract and representational, and she creates these mysterious and intimate spaces in a thoroughly considered way.

Josephine has a studio in Brooklyn, but is always finding ways to paint in cabins in the countrysides of Massachusetts and New York. She made this painting in a pine cabin in Speculator, NY, in the heart of the Adirondack State park. What an incredible name for a place. And what an incredible painting.