A Hopeful Dress-Up Painting

“Looking back on my 20-year career as an oil painter, I can point to certain impulses that caused me to pursue some particular theme or another for a period of time, then move on to consider some other subject. The impulse to paint portraits or sporting art, animals or genre scenes may look very different to those who see my work, but as the subjects change the impulse is always the same — to get to the essence of the thing: the essence of this moment… the imaginary timeless time in which the painting lives, the timeless moment of its creation. The NOW of NOW. I find that the work ‘talks’ to me, informing me at every point what needs to be done, so the surfaces of my work vary considerably from painting to painting, often contradicting what I might have in mind at the start of a work —some works require an airy or light touch, some works want the paint applied with a trowel. I’m okay with that. More than anything I would want the audience to have an experience looking at my work similar to what I had in its creation — with my attention turned to beauty, I become connected to the Beauty that is my true nature, where the inner and the outer become one.” Joseph lives in Montgomery, NY, with a studio at the Regal Bag Building on the Hudson River in nearby Newburgh.