Tomorrow night, a handful of extraordinary seascapes go on exhibit at Gardner Colby Gallery in Olde Naples. They are part of a group show titled “By the Sea” and come from the easel of Edward Minoff.
Minoff’s seascapes are reminiscent of those of William Trost Richards, which is not altogether surprising since Richards was a member of the Hudson River School of painters and Minoff is a card-carrying member of the Hudson River Fellowship, an organization Minoff co-founded with Jacob Collins, Nicholas Hiltner and Travis Schiaht to study the Hudson River painters and understand how they went about painting their substantial landscapes. However, Richards rejected the stylized and romanticized approach of his Hudson River colleagues in favor of meticulously-studied, factually-based renderings like his 1873 work Seascape with Distant Lighthouse, Atlantic City, New Jersey which today resides in the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza in Madrid.
Minoff’s study of his motif and careful examination of the physics, kinetics and anatomy of waves has been well-chronicled. But while that explains how the realist produces his powerful seascapes, what attracts collectors to Minoff’s paintings is the way in which his paintings capture sea’s power, expansiveness and alluring beauty whether viewed under the sun’s first rays or afternoon radiance or the pale glow of a full moon. It’s not just that Minoff puts you on the beach. He puts you on the beach at a particular time of day or under specific atmospheric conditions.
Take Sunrise #2 (above) for example. If you’ve ever walked or jogged the beach in the moments before dawn, you’ve seen the very sky Minoff portrays in this painting. You’ve strained to discern the horizon line you know lies somewhere between the grayed outer reaches of the ocean and the lightless band of gray sky not yet illuminated by the soft blues, greens and saffron that herald the sun’s imminent approach. You’ve noticed the way the mid-water seems flat before giving rise to low, dark swells that fizzle into a broad expanse of foam and suds long before they reach the soft sands of the waiting beach. Just like a long-forgotten tune on the radio can transport you back in time, a Minoff seascape rekindles the unique emotions you experienced at that very time of day as you contemplated the sea and your relationship with time, nature and divinity.
But like the ocean, a Minoff seascape has to be experienced.
See you there.
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