J. Stephen Clark 🏳️‍🌈

@jstephenclark

ALBA𝗡𝗬 LAW SCHOOL Con Law | Conflicts | Employment Ethiopian food | A.B. Durand art Andrew’s partner | cat dad x2 𝘝𝘪𝘦𝘸𝘴 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘮𝘺 𝘰𝘸𝘯

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J. Stephen Clark 🏳️‍🌈@jstephenclark· Jul 5

== Hudson River Zen == Asher Brown Durand, 𝘓𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘴𝘤𝘢𝘱𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘈𝘮𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘐𝘯𝘥𝘪𝘢𝘯𝘴, oil on canvas, 1846, Parrish Art Museum, parrishart.org/artist-stori... On view at the Church in the exhibition "This Land," Jun 21 to Sep 6, 2026, www.thechurchsagharbor.org/this-land-co... #art #painting #zen #durand

An Asher Durand landscape with a dramatic sky, a large tree on the left half of the canvas, and mountains in the distant horizon. In the foreground an American Indian perhaps signals to four others in the midground. Sold in 1938 with sold with another painting, Close of a Sultry Day, now at Richmond Art Museum and featured here in a post on Nov. 27, 2025, this painting is described by the Union League Club as follows: "Verdant landscapes with tall spreading oaks, and hills
in the distance; one [painting] with an Indian invoking spirits, with tribesmen in the middle distance." Photographed while on view July 3, 2026, at the Church in Sag Harbor, N.Y. (Lawall no. 106.)

Detail of the American Indian in the foreground.

Detail of the four other American Indians in the midground.

Me posting with the painting. Thanks to my wonderful spouse Andrew for the photo and, more importantly, for researching and planning the trip to Sag Harbor.

J. Stephen Clark 🏳️‍🌈@jstephenclark· Jun 12

David Hockney (1937-2026) Yosemite I, October 16th, 2011

J. Stephen Clark 🏳️‍🌈@jstephenclark· Jun 12

RIP

J. Stephen Clark 🏳️‍🌈@jstephenclark· May 17

== Hudson River Zen == Asher Brown Durand, 𝘒𝘢𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘬𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘓𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘴𝘤𝘢𝘱𝘦, oil on canvas, 1850, Princeton University Art Museum, artmuseum.princeton.edu/art/collecti... #art #painting #zen #durand

J. Stephen Clark 🏳️‍🌈@jstephenclark· Apr 27

== Hudson River Zen == Asher Brown Durand, 𝘔𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘵𝘢𝘪𝘯 𝘚𝘵𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘮, oil on canvas, 1848, private collector #art #painting #zen #durand

J. Stephen Clark 🏳️‍🌈@jstephenclark· Apr 22

Earth Day! ("Happy" didn't seem right.)

J. Stephen Clark 🏳️‍🌈@jstephenclark· Apr 18

== Hudson River Zen == Asher Brown Durand, 𝘓𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘴𝘤𝘢𝘱𝘦, oil on canvas, 1859, Princeton University, Art Museum, artmuseum.princeton.edu/collections/... #art #painting #zen #durand

J. Stephen Clark 🏳️‍🌈@jstephenclark· Apr 18

We also already know how this turns out.

J. Stephen Clark 🏳️‍🌈@jstephenclark· Apr 3

== Hudson River Zen == Asher Brown Durand, 𝘚𝘵𝘶𝘥𝘺 𝘢𝘵 𝘔𝘢𝘳𝘣𝘭𝘦𝘵𝘰𝘸𝘯, 𝘜𝘭𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘊𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘵𝘺, 𝘕𝘦𝘸 𝘠𝘰𝘳𝘬, oil on canvas, 1855, New-York Historical Society, emuseum.nyhistory.org/objects/227/... #art #painting #zen #durand

J. Stephen Clark 🏳️‍🌈@jstephenclark· Mar 29

== Hudson River Zen == Flipping the Script? [L] Asher Brown Durand, 𝘓𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘴𝘤𝘢𝘱𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘉𝘪𝘳𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘴, 1855, Boston Museum of Fine Arts, collections.mfa.org/objects/3375... [R] Asher Brown Durand, 𝘞𝘰𝘰𝘥𝘭𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘓𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘴𝘤𝘢𝘱𝘦, 1855, St. Louis Art Museum, www.slam.org/collection/o... #art #painting #zen #durand

Study of contrast between foreground trees and distant mountains with trees framing the left side of the canvas. Small size: 24" x" 18"

Study of contrast between foreground trees and distant mountains with trees framing the right side of the canvas. Also small size: 24" x" 17"

J. Stephen Clark 🏳️‍🌈@jstephenclark· Mar 22

== Hudson River Zen == From Sketch to Painting Sketch: 𝘊𝘩𝘰𝘤𝘰𝘳𝘶𝘢 𝘔𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘵𝘢𝘪𝘯, 𝘕𝘦𝘸 𝘏𝘢𝘮𝘱𝘴𝘩𝘪𝘳𝘦, 1855, NYHS Asher Brown Durand, 𝘊𝘩𝘰𝘤𝘰𝘳𝘶𝘢 𝘗𝘦𝘢𝘬 a.k.a. 𝘊𝘩𝘰𝘤𝘰𝘳𝘶𝘢 𝘔𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘵𝘢𝘪𝘯, 𝘕𝘦𝘸 𝘏𝘢𝘮𝘱𝘴𝘩𝘪𝘳𝘦, oil on canvas, 1855, Rhode Island School of Design Museum, risdmuseum.org/art-design/c... #art #painting #zen #durand

J. Stephen Clark 🏳️‍🌈@jstephenclark· Mar 15

== Hudson River Zen == A family gift (left). From an 1869 book, "The Poet and the Painter," printing an engraving by Londoner John Kirk, "A Scene in the Adirondack Mountains," possibly of a lost 1863 Durand painting, "Landscape Composition" (right, AI simulation) for collector Henry G. Marquand.

Photograph of a framed Durand-based print, which was a recent family gift. The print includes the title "Adirondack Mountains," and depicts a mountain in the background, with a small lake in the basin at the foot of the mountain in the midground, and a small tree in the center of the foreground. The image, attributed to "J. Kirk," is from an engraving by John Kirk for an 1869 book, "The Poet and the Painter." The engraving was likely made from a photograph of a Durand painting. The image does not correspond to any Durand painting with a catalogued photograph. The most likely prospect as the source painting is Asher Durand's 1863 painting, "Landscape Composition," commissioned by prominent New York City art collector Henry G. Marquand. There is no catalogued image of the painting, and its location is unknown.

An AI simulation of the original Durand painting extrapolating from the print drawing upon on typical Durand compositional preferences.

J. Stephen Clark 🏳️‍🌈@jstephenclark· Mar 7

== Hudson River Zen == Experiment in AI simulation from best-available public image Asher Brown Durand, 𝘝𝘪𝘦𝘸 𝘰𝘧 𝘞𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘗𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘵, oil on canvas, 1851, private collection?, siris-artinventories.si.edu/ipac20/ipac.... #art #painting #zen #durand

J. Stephen Clark 🏳️‍🌈@jstephenclark· Mar 1

== Hudson River Zen == Earlier Imperialism Asher Brown Durand, 𝘌𝘴𝘤𝘢𝘱𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘎𝘦𝘯𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘭 𝘐𝘴𝘳𝘢𝘦𝘭 𝘗𝘶𝘵𝘯𝘢𝘮 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘐𝘯𝘥𝘪𝘢𝘯𝘴, oil on canvas, 1844, Fenimore Art Museum, collections.fenimoreart.org/objects/2017... #art #painting #zen #durand

J. Stephen Clark 🏳️‍🌈@jstephenclark· Mar 1

I hadn’t realized how heavily the Iranian population is concentrated in its western regions.

J. Stephen Clark 🏳️‍🌈@jstephenclark· Feb 23

== Hudson River Zen == Asher Brown Durand, 𝘎𝘰𝘥'𝘴 𝘑𝘶𝘥𝘨𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘜𝘱𝘰𝘯 𝘎𝘰𝘨, oil on canvas, 1851-52, Chrysler Museum of Art, chrysler.emuseum.com/objects/9367... #art #painting #zen #durand

Asher B. Durand American, 1796—1886 God’s Judgment Upon Gog, ca. 1851-52 Oil on canvas In the shadows at the bottom of this valley, birds and wild beasts devour the army of Gog, the evil prince. The Hebrew Bible prophet Ezekiel stands above on a rocky pulpit and calls forth a divine vengeance. Asher B. Durand unleashes all of his skill as a landscape painter to depict this violent scene, using a storm and jagged mountains to reinforce the mood. Durand became best known for his depictions of lush New England scenery. However, like many other American landscape painters, he remained deeply interested in the way that landscape could express grand themes and lofty ideals.

Durand's son wrote: " It is simply necessary to state here that, as usual with subjects chosen for an artist, the picture was not a success."

J. Stephen Clark 🏳️‍🌈@jstephenclark· Feb 7

== Hudson River Zen == Downstream v. Upstream (L) Asher Brown Durand, 𝘈 𝘙𝘦𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘴𝘤𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘊𝘢𝘵𝘴𝘬𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘊𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦 [𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘊𝘢𝘵𝘴𝘬𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘴], 1859, Walters Art Museum (R) Asher Brown Durand, 𝘞𝘰𝘰𝘥𝘭𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘚𝘤𝘦𝘯𝘦 [𝘈 𝘙𝘦𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘴𝘤𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘊𝘢𝘵𝘴𝘬𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘊𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦], oil on canvas, 1858, Currier Museum of Art #art #painting #zen

Painting exhibited at the National Academy of Design in 1859 as described in New York Saturday Press, April 23, 1859: "A very characteristic picture of the romantic beauties of the Catskill Clove, painted with remarkable grasp of breadth and detail, with technical fidelity and poetical generalization. Through a rocky vista of the grandest mountain elevation, shaded by a gigantic growth of American forest trees, we see—stretching far away into neighboring States--vast plains and hilly reaches. As an example of landscape handling, we especially admire the twin tree trunks in the foreground. Most felicitously choosing between photographic minuteness of detail and the lawless looseness of the sketching method, this artist gives us all that is ordinarily recognized by the eye, and adds a grace, a harmony, and an ensemble of beauties rarely found in the same scene. The poetical feeling of this artist leads him to reverse the common order, and direct his mountain stream towards the vague distance of the picture, thus insensibly beguiling the "imagination of the beholder into pleasing contemplation of its fortunes during its long journey to the plains below."

Similar composition as the first painting, but looking upstream rather than downstream. Confusingly renamed from "Woodland Scene" to duplicate the name of the more famous painting at the Walter Art Museum. Although claimed to have been exhibited at the National Academy of Design in 1859, this painting does not match the contemporaneous description in the New York Saturday Press.

J. Stephen Clark 🏳️‍🌈@jstephenclark· Jan 26

== Hudson River Zen == An Ice Encounter Asher Brown Durand, 𝘈𝘯 𝘐𝘤𝘦𝘣𝘦𝘳𝘨, watercolor, 1840, unlocated, siris-artinventories.si.edu/ipac20/ipac.... #art #painting #zen #iceberg #durand

Reproduction from the original sketch. Waterscape depicting a view looking across a choppy sea toward a jagged iceberg floating in the distance. Painted during Durand's Atlantic crossing by steamer ship from Liverpool to Boston at the end of his European Tour. From his son's biography (1895): “On the voyage his brush is brought into requisition by a sight of icebergs, of which he makes some water-colour drawings for himself and his fellow-passengers.” The biography dated the painting as June 1840 but also implied that it was made during the return trip, which was in June 1841.

J. Stephen Clark 🏳️‍🌈@jstephenclark· Jan 11

== Hudson River Zen == Shout out to our neighbors, the Berkshires! Asher Brown Durand, 𝘔𝘰𝘯𝘶𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘔𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘵𝘢𝘪𝘯, 𝘉𝘦𝘳𝘬𝘴𝘩𝘪𝘳𝘦𝘴, oil on canvas, 1850, Detroit Institute of Arts, dia.org/collection/m...

J. Stephen Clark 🏳️‍🌈@jstephenclark· Jan 2

== Hudson River Zen == Ending the year on a proper note with a visit to our excellent local museum! Asher Brown Durand, 𝘈𝘯 𝘖𝘭𝘥 𝘔𝘢𝘯'𝘴 𝘙𝘦𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘴𝘤𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦𝘴, oil on canvas, 1845, Albany Institute of History and Art, www.albanyinstitute.org/collection/d...

From the Albany Institute: "This painting is one of Durand's most richly symbolic landscapes. Relying on the English poet Oliver Goldsmith's Deserted Village of 1770, which recounted the visit of an old man to the site of the town where he had spent his youth, Durand's painting functions as a cohesive picture of scenery, but more properly as a landscape of memory. What the old man sees reminds him of his own past. Childhood is represented by the schoolchildren, youth by the lovers seated beneath a tree, and adulthood by the man driving the hay cart."

Me standing beside the painting on exhibit at the Albany Institute

J. Stephen Clark 🏳️‍🌈@jstephenclark· Dec 28

== Hudson River Zen == Asher Brown Durand, 𝘊𝘭𝘢𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘭 𝘓𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘴𝘤𝘢𝘱𝘦, oil on canvas, ca. 1850, Delaware Art Museum, emuseum.delart.org/objects/2990... #art #painting #zen

J. Stephen Clark 🏳️‍🌈@jstephenclark· Dec 19

== Hudson River Zen == Durand but different: a sketch from his European tour Asher Brown Durand, 𝘚𝘰𝘳𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘰 in 𝘚𝘬𝘦𝘵𝘤𝘩𝘣𝘰𝘰𝘬, watercolor, gouache, and graphite on paper, 1841, New-York Historical Society, emuseum.nyhistory.org/objects/2083... #art #painting #zen

J. Stephen Clark 🏳️‍🌈@jstephenclark· Dec 12

== Hudson River Zen == Visiting Philadelphia, so highlighting this secret Durand that was last known to be here. Asher Brown Durand, 𝘜𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘵𝘭𝘦𝘥 (𝘓𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘴𝘤𝘢𝘱𝘦), oil on canvas, 1860, anonymous collection #art #painting #zen

Rocky outcropping in the left foreground with two towering trees on the right and more atop the outcropping and in the distance.

J. Stephen Clark 🏳️‍🌈@jstephenclark· Dec 6

== Hudson River Zen == Special visit to the IMA to see my partner Andrew's hometown Durand! Asher Brown Durand, 𝘓𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘴𝘤𝘢𝘱𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘊𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘥 𝘞𝘢𝘨𝘰𝘯, oil on canvas, 1847, Indianapolis Museum of Art, collections.discovernewfields.org/art/artwork/... #art #painting #zen

A man and a boy follow a covered wagon pulled by three horses down a winding dirt trail next to a forest with trees towering in the left midground. On the right in the distant background is a Hudson-like river in front of mountains on the horizon. In the lower foreground are the usual Durand stones and brush. More from Durand expert David Lawall, 1977: While European scenes disappear from Durand’s later work, his love of America continued to express itself in paintings dealing with the American frontier. In 1839 he exhibited at the National Academy a painting entitled Landscape, Western Emigrants. This was followed in 1844 by an Emigrant Family and in 1847 by Landscape with Covered Wagon. Of these only the last has been located. This represents a covered wagon drawn by horses and followed by a man and a boy along a wilderness road. The two earlier paintings were probably of a similar character. All three paintings, we may assume, were fitted to withdraw the mind of the spectator from his own cares in the city. But also these might carry the mind into the past and the future. Nature itself bespeaks the past, but not merely the past of a particular historical epoch such as the Medieval period of European history suggested by the View of Oberweisal on the Rhine. Rather, the wilderness carries the mind back to the very beginning of the world. The imaginative painter or spectator, according to Durand, “reads the historic record which time has written on all things for our instruction, through all stages of their silent transition, since the period when this verdant earth was a lifeless, molten chaos, “void and without form.”

Closeup detail of the horse-drawn covered wagon followed by the man and boy.

Andrew and I posing with the hometown Durand!

Closeup detail of the easily overlooked additional figure in the distant lead further along the trail. H/t to Andrew's spotting!

J. Stephen Clark 🏳️‍🌈@jstephenclark· Nov 27

== Hudson River Zen == Delighted to help uncover Durand's evocative original name for 𝘓𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘴𝘤𝘢𝘱𝘦. Thanks to Ex Dir Shaun for the image! Asher Brown Durand, 𝘊𝘭𝘰𝘴𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘢 𝘚𝘶𝘭𝘵𝘳𝘺 𝘋𝘢𝘺, oil on canvas, 1844, RAM: Richmond [Ind.] Art Museum, richmondartmuseum.org/permanent-co... #art #painting #zen

Painting with trees bracketing each side of the darkly shadowed foreground giving way to a bright midground scene of a stream and pond with a boy herding cows toward the background down a stone-marked path and across a small bridge to a watering place. Mountains define the distant background beneath a cloudy sky.

From Ladies Repository, May 1845: "Mountain gently rising above mountain in the background, the translucent river slowly moving its waveless waters through the still forest, the farmer's boy driving the wearied cattle to drink the refreshing stream, the majestic sycamores lifting their heads to the clouds, and interrupted pencils of mellow light falling upon the scene from the hidden and descending sun, are all calculated to inspire that feeling of melancholy and tranquility which is the appropriate emotion of evening."

Daniel Huntington in his Memorial Address for Durand, 1887, observed that after Durand's European Tour, 1840-41, "European images were still hovering in his brain. There was danger that the wild freshness of our American forests, lakes, and mountains might lose their hold on his heart. But no." This landscape was "among the first to indicate the return of his early feeling, with greatly increased knowledge and power."

J. Stephen Clark 🏳️‍🌈@jstephenclark· Nov 21

== Hudson River Zen == From a recent visit to the Met! Asher Brown Durand, 𝘚𝘶𝘮𝘮𝘦𝘳 𝘈𝘧𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘯𝘰𝘰𝘯, oil on canvas, 1865, Met: Metropolitan Museum of Art, www.metmuseum.org/art/collecti... #art #painting #zen

Summer landscape with a river on the left and cattle on the right under a grove of trees along the river bank. From the April 1915 Bulletin of the Met: "One of the latest of his pictures is called a 'Summer Afternoon,' and epresents a quiet landscape, with water, meadow, trees, and cattle, all bathed in the soft, calm, and mellow light of a warm day, after the fierce heat of noon has subsided, and before the breeze of evening stirs the foliage. The sky and atmosphere, the vegetation, and especially the noble groups of trees, all breathe an air of quiet, brooding warmth and repose. All Durand's rare faculty appears in the latter [the trees], which are full of local character; the details of the scene are exquisitely true, but the surpassing charm is that delicate and deep feeling which revives, as we gaze, the absolute sensation, and above all the sentiment of nature, under this aspect--a quality and a distinction which none of our scenic artists possess in so high a degree as the venerable friend of Cole, and, with him, the founder of an American school of landscape which has, at home and abroad, shed a peculiar renown upon the art of this country. We rejoice to find that Durand's powers of execution and tone of feeling are as vivid and pure as ever; this picture has all his most endeared characteristics."

Detail of two cows at water's edge and another approaching from behind a gentle rise in the land. Trees and horizon form the background.

Detail of tree branches and leaves with sky in the background.

Yours truly posing in front of the painting in visible storage at the Met.

J. Stephen Clark 🏳️‍🌈@jstephenclark· Nov 19

== Hudson River Zen == Okay, it’s not an Asher Durand painting, but it almost seems like having one in our home after a Herculean effort to clean years of grime off a window that’s 20 feet off the ground. Bring on the winter. We’ll grab as much light as we can from these upstate NY skies!

J. Stephen Clark 🏳️‍🌈@jstephenclark· Nov 15

🇪🇹 Ethiopian Cooking 🇪🇹 Kik Alicha | ክክ አልጫ Yellow split peas, but the real yellow is from the turmeric! Crucial: fresh garlic and ginger--i.e. from cloves and roots, not convenient little bottles. 😊 Cheers to the Toronto Star @thestar.com for the easy recipe.

Close-up photo of a bright yellow stew with identifiable split peas.

J. Stephen Clark 🏳️‍🌈@jstephenclark· Nov 15

Recently started trying AI when I can't find real life photos. Either AI-created photos or illustrations (based on known physical attributes). Clearly label them AI. Left: "Chaplinsky" rendering (fighting words case). Right: "Watts" (true threats case: "first man I want to get in my sights is LBJ").

J. Stephen Clark 🏳️‍🌈@jstephenclark· Nov 14

We're on Canvas not D2L. Comparable? Not sure exactly what you're looking for. I use a template. But I often work directly in the underlying HTML code, which most people won't want to do. The Canvas interface isn't precise enough. I start a new page by copying and pasting the template's HTML.