This large (30 X 40 inch) oil painting was created, on-site, and in one sitting on a frigid, 17°F evening in the Missouri River bottoms of south Callaway County MIssouri. This piece is one of the most iconic from my 30 year career painting there. It was painted toward the end of a year long stint creating pieces for two solo exhibits showcasing my final paintings of the state before our move to the Pacific Northwest. I was delighted when Joan Stack, Curator of Arts Collections, selected this painting to add to their collection of my pieces at the State Historical Society of Missouri—bringing the total to seven pieces in all. At the time I said this of the painting:
“This was a thrilling painting to create on a 24° F evening. Working in a tonalist fashion I raced the sunset to capture the pale pink and lavender light gleaming into the snowy field from the left as I looked to the North. The colored streaks in the sky only appeared in the last fifteen or so minutes of painting. The coral pink one is two strokes with a palette knife. My favorite color in this piece is the chartreuse light glowing through the treetops. That chartreuse color is nearly always in the sunset sky—but our brains tell us sunsets are orange, not yellow-green.” —Brian Mahieu
“His visions have a poignant and sometimes somber “poetry of place” that appeals to the tendency to associate the rhythms of the natural environment with the rhythms of human life.”
Joan Stack, Ph.D
Curator of Art Collections The State Historical Society of Missouri
STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF MISSOURI
Contemporary Artists Collection