Artist Statement

I have been painting, since childhood.  With little formal training, I taught myself to paint by studying art books, visiting art museums, and experimenting with various techniques to develop my eclectic approach to painting.  I paint in acrylic because I like its durability, versatility, and fast drying time.  I use Golden Artist Colors because I want to use only the highest quality paint products in my work.  

I love the landscape of central New York.  It is the primary inspiration for my work and area lakes and streams, vistas, barns, and trees, especially elms, are the subject of most of my paintings.  My work evinces my sense of place living in an active agricultural district, where I grow trees and cultivate extensive gardens, not far from where I was born and raised.  There is a synergy between gardening and my painting.  Gardening nourishes my soul and helps keep me and my art practice centered on the land, the cycle of life, and the seasons.  I am captivated by the multitude of patterns in the landscape, which change with the weather and light conditions, throughout each day of the year. 

My painting style varies, depending on the subject.  When I do paintings to memorialize particular landmarks, places, or events, I use realism to make them recognizable.  On the other hand, when painting cows, I had enough reality growing up on a dairy farm.  So, I often distance myself from those somewhat unpleasant memories, by distorting bovine images to create spatially ambiguous abstract compositions.  This gives me a great deal of pleasure and sure beats milking them. 

My painting process usually consists of three phases.  First, there is photographic fieldwork.  I look for views of places and things that I can imagine painting.  They may be intrinsically beautiful, like sunsets, or ordinary as cows.  I use photography as a tool to collect ideas for paintings, and for reference. 

The second phase is one of visualization.  Just as athletes visualize their performances, I spend time thinking about how to execute my paintings and there are many things to consider.  What will be the basic color scheme?  Will I do an underpainting, and if so, what color will it be?  What will I use to apply the paint?  Will I work on the floor, a table, or an easel? 

The third and last phase is putting a brush, knife, or other tool to canvas and painting.  It is always an adventure because I can never be certain of what will happen next.  My initial vision may need some tweaking.  Occasionally, it may be completely superseded.  Layer upon layer, beginning with broad strokes and ending with fine details, an image materializes on the canvas. Adjustments are made, here and there.  Mistakes, if made, are corrected.  Hundreds or thousands of strokes later, the painting is done, when nothing about it bothers me. 

Artist Bio

I began painting when I was nine years old.  I had been hunting and wanted to do an oil painting of the deer that got away.  My grade school art teacher over saw the project.  She limited me to the three primary colors and white.  So, I started out with Cadmium Red, Cadmium Yellow, Prussian Blue and Titanium White.  From these colors I had to make brown, black, green and orange.  Prussian Blue was a killer, because of its tinting strength, but I made the best of it, learning vital color mixing lessons.  I fell in love with painting and began exhibiting my work, however, my parents discourage me from pursuing art as a career.  So, after high school, I went to college at Cornell and majored in history, as a foundation for law school.  I read art books and magazines, went to art museums and shows, talked with artist, whenever I had the opportunity, and taught myself to paint.  Upon graduation, I served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Tchad, Africa.  That experience was transformative and continues to influence my life today.  After returning from Tchad, I studied law first at Syracuse and then at N.Y.U.  As a newly minted lawyer, I returned home to Chenango County to live and work.  Disillusioned with the full-time practice of law and still an artist at heart, I left the firm after two years to refocus on my artwork.  I had once dreamed of going to art school, but that was no longer an option.  Instead, I audited several classes at Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute, while working part-time in my newly established solo law practice.  This allowed me to support myself and still have time to paint.  It also gave me the freedom to experiment and paint what I wanted, without needing to adhere to one signature style of work for a particular market. 

I was born in Chenango County and raised on a dairy farm in Smyrna, New York.  When I was young, I wanted to get away from the farm, as fast as I could.  However, after my Peace Corps experience and travel abroad, I realized how lucky I was to have grown up on a farm, because it is an experience, few artists have today.  It connected me and my art practice to the land, nature and the rural environment.  While I occasionally paint portraits and village scenes, I am primarily a painter of various aspects of the rural landscape, such as trees, streams, barns, cows and lakes.  That’s where my heart is and it’s the focus of my art. 

My wife and I now live and work in a house that I designed and built by myself, overlooking the beautiful upper Lyon Brook Valley, in Guilford, New York.  I have also created gardens and planted thousands of trees on our property, completely transforming our 63-acre landscape.  This sculpted landscape, our house, my life and art practice are intertwined in one holistic art project. 

My work has been exhibited in galleries in Massachusetts, New Jersey, Maryland, Virginia and throughout central New York.  It can presently be seen in Norwich at the Norwich Tire Company on Hale Street, the Guernsey Library and Hospice Chenango on Court Street, the Wilson Funeral Home and Commerce Chenango on South Broad Street, the Chenango County and Surrogate Courtroom on Eaton Avenue, on-line at my website www.drexlerart.com and at our home in Guilford.