Local Artist Launches New Show, 'A Change of Weather'

Weather on the North Fork can range from gloriously sunny summer days — which nurture farm fields bursting with life and color — to the veritable tempest of Mother Nature's fury.

And, while clouds and rain can put a damper on man's best-laid plans, they are often captured for posterity on an artist's canvas.

“Clouds make rain, rain makes atmosphere,” Baiting Hollow resident Max Moran, who is at home artistically in both New York City and on the East End of Long Island, said.

A reception for Moran's new show, "A Change of Weather," takes place on Saturday from 5 p.m. until 8 p.m. at the Jedediah Hawkins Inn, in the Barn Gallery. 

The show runs Friday from 5 p.m. and Saturdays and Sundays from 1 p.m. through 7 p.m., Aug. 17 through September 8.

The new East End landscapes and “Manhattan Rain” series explore the two different locales through changing weather. According to the artist, when viewed together, they "harmonize in an unexpected way, and stimulate a dialogue about what it means to be in two places, a dichotomy that many observers also experience."

Moran’s new works, “A Change of Weather,” explore what he deems the "vibrant yet subtle natural colors of the East End; ever-changing on cloudy, windy, and sunny days."

Plein air painting — a movement characterized by artists who work outdoors in the moment — is a passion for Moran because, he said, it takes direct inspiration from nature like no other painting discipline.

“That moment of that day is what I’m after,” he said. “A cloud formation passing overhead in the wide-open sky, the wind in the trees, the ripening crops - it’s like a music that always plays but is never the same.”

Many of the fields depicted in Moran's new work are near his home in Baiting Hollow —and, he said, are open spaces threatened by development.

“I like to seek out these sacred, historic places and celebrate them, record them,” he said. “The days are numbered for these fields, and once they’re gone, they’re never coming back.”

Moran prefers to create “pop-up exhibits” in locales with deep local roots, he said.

“The Barn Gallery at Jedediah Hawkins Inn is a perfect example of the amazing synergy of art, food, wine and history that we all love about the East End,” he said.

Last August, Moran hosted another exhibition at the Barn Gallery. 

The show was a celebration following a years-long odyssey after hundreds of paintings and sketches were stolen from his Mattituck studio in 2004 and 2006.