ArtistsNetwork.com 41Sharing the Familiar
The riches that twilight offers have
enticed Maine painter Linden
Frederick to devote the bulk of his
career to exploring its possibilities.
“I don’t know if it’s something that
can be explained beyond the fact
that there are certain sorts of feelings
we all have about dusk,” he says.
“As humans, we’re programmed to
seek shelter. That’s how we’re built.
Intellectually, I don’t pay that much
attention to it. It’s more a kind of
emotional, intuitive kind of thing.
I appreciate it from a painter’s point
of view. I like the way that light hap-
pens and how things change. Just
being able to grab that is satisfying.
And then there’s this magical, inside/
outside switch when interior and
exterior light have the same strength.”
The contemplative quality of
Frederick’s paintings is increased by
his decision to exclude figures. “Notincluding people in my work allows
viewers to bring their own stories
to the viewing experience,” he says.
Working largely with subject mat-
ter from neighborhoods he’s familiar
with in Maine and upstate New York,
his work presents a mundane world
of modest homes and roadside busi-
nesses transformed into places
suggestive of drama, resplendent
with color and infused moods that
can range from portentous to elegiac.