This bronze of bust of painter Thomas Moran, sculpted by Greg Wyatt, is one of ten significant Hudson River School 19th century painters honored in Boscobel Mansions Sculpture Garden. The bust has already acquired a green patina, which made a poor subject for an expressive photograph.

I simply converted my color image to black and white. The green patina vanished, replaced by the powerful presence of Wyatt's sculpting itself. The image also becomes a contrast of textures, bust vs. tree. And since Moran was one of our greatest landscape painters, that pairing of the textures becomes even more appropriate. Texture is at the heart of a painters work, and trees are essential players in many, if not most, landscape paintings.