Small Landscapes, Big Views

As a landscape painter living in the shadows of New York's Hudson Valley and Catskill Mountains, artist Crista Pisano is fortunate to be following in the footsteps of some of the greatest Hudson River School Painters from the 19th Century and American landscape painters that followed. She often finds herself overwhelmed to be a part of this great tradition in American history, painting in some of the same locations where her heroes have painted before her.

Pisano's intimate landscape paintings are started on site and en plein air. It is not only the act of painting en plein air, but also the observation of her surroundings and environment that allows her artwork to capture the feeling of the space she is painting. Her goal is not to copy or record what she sees, but to interpret and suggest in paint what she is looking at.

Pisano paints in oils on various types of wood and pressed board that she prepares herself. This process allows her to custom cut the smaller sizes she prefers. Pisano loves the idea of a small painting encompassing a large view in nature.

Over the past three years, her landscape travels have taken her to north and mid coastal Maine as well as the southern Outer Banks of North Carolina. Her love of the marshes on the Long Island Sound often take her to Connecticut for landscape painting day trips. Every summer, Pisano turns to The Adirondacks of New York where she is constantly amazed by the majestic mountains that overlook the landscape. Whether she is experiencing and painting a landscape location for the first time or returning to views she loves, there is always something new and exciting to experience.