The kayaking artist

The series begins and ends with two depictions of the Half Moon: sailing in New York Harbor and docked at Albany. How did you put together those scenes?

The image of the Half Moon sailing in New York Harbor was recreated from various pictures of the ship. I show it right where Hudson entered the harbor, according to his diary. He saw a hilly island where the Freedom Tower is today.

I went out in my kayak and saw the skyline of Albany and realized it would be hard to paint; it was so humdrum. Then one day I went out in my boat and saw the Half Moon at the dock, approximately where Hudson’s journey would have ended. I photographed it, and that was the basis of my painting.

When did you begin kayaking on the river?

I learned how to kayak 18 years ago in New York Harbor. It was five years after I began working for the New York City Planning Department on a comprehensive waterfront plan for the Harlem River, in the Bronx, including preliminary studies for the upgrading of Yankee Stadium. The directors of the Planning Department wanted a comprehensive waterfront plan for the whole city, and this was the model. Working on the plan is what got me kayaking on the Harlem River.

What’s it like being out on the river in a kayak?

First, there’s the incredible personal experience of being in direct relationship with an enormous piece of nature and the amazing sense of renewal that provides. You’re a tiny element in the vast scale of nature. In New York Harbor it can be daunting.

I now kayak mostly near Kingston, and the scale of the water and the sky is amazing. There’s little development on shore. The immense and powerful relationship with nature is here with us, and [being out in a kayak] you have rebalanced yourself in terms of what’s important and what’s not.

The second thing is everything you see: New York City and the Statue of Liberty and the bridges are all things we don’t get at very easily on land, and seeing them from the water is a hugely inspiring experience. And it’s more powerful in a kayak than if you’re moving at 20 or 30 miles per hour in a powerboat, which is not a contemplative experience, but a thrill.

Besides choosing what you’re going to paint and from what vantagepoint, what’s the biggest challenge in your painting?

I’ve had to struggle to move away from illustration. Illustration is showing what something looks like, while painting is about composition, massing and design: the quality and character of the painting, all the things that make it unique. The challenge is how to make it a painterly experience, which besides from the quality of the material, derives from developing techniques. This is becoming more fun, while literalism is work. I still work as a consultant in urban design as an illustrator, but I get paid by the hour.

How much time to you spend in the studio?

When I stopped working for Scenic Hudson I rented a studio at the Shirt Factory, because I needed a space where I was completely dedicated to this work. There’s no computer in the space, and I go five to six days a week from 10:30 in the morning to 5 p.m.

What do you like about watercolor?

It’s a very direct, quick medium that allows or requires a spontaneous approach. Ultimately it leads to results that interest me. I have been painting for 25 to 30 years, though not full-time, and my earliest work was in watercolor. I attended the Spring Street Studio, in New York City, which was a famous place for artists to paint models. I did that for six years before moving to the Hudson Valley. I’ve studied with Staats Fasoldt at the Woodstock School of Art, who is a phenomenal teacher. Figurative painting is my first interest, and when I went into the environment, I felt having a human component was a very critical piece most of the time.

In the painting of the Palisades, depicted as a thick horizontal band, in a series of horizontals, against which a brightly colored tug and barge chug upstream in profile, the low barges reinforce the horizontality of the composition, even as the tug’s bright touch of red and graphic black-and-white contrast against the neutral earth colors of the land and cliffs. In the view of Storm King from Cold Spring, the colors of the houses in the foreground echo the greens and earthen oranges in the mountain, even as the geometry of the houses is a contrast.

I like to contrast the environment with what’s built. I’m playing off harmony and contrast, even as I’m looking at the balance with the natural environment and what we built. They reinforce each other.

The wall texts are unusually detailed and informative.

This is saying, “Let me bring in a dimension about environmental history that will interest a broader range of people.” The art will be enhanced by these stories.

Ray Curran’s “Icons of the Hudson River: An Artistic Journey along Henry Hudson’s Route from New York Harbor to Albany,” Monday-Friday, 8 a.m.-6 p.m., Saturday, 9 a.m.-2 p.m. through December, Mid-Hudson Valley Federal Credit Union, 1099 Morton Boulevard, Kingston; [email protected], www.raycurran-artwork.com.