Art at Zero

Peter Gish '49, Mike to his friends, is an artist who lives in Greenwich, Conn., but who returns to Hanover as often as possible. Back in March a local photographer captured this shot of Mike as he, in turn, was capturing a landscape a few miles down Route 5. He had been in White River planning some restoration work on the murals he did in the Coolidge Hotel in 1950- 51. Mike never travels without his easel and the rest of his paraphernalia, but watercolors were out on this trip since the temperature was hovering around zero. Even his oils were recalcitrant. If you can't quite make out what's on the canvas, well, that's because for convenience's sake there are. two works: the snowscape in progress and, at the right and sideways, a painting of a barn he'd worked on a bit farther north. When both are completed he'll cut them apart and stretch them separately. Like Grandma Moses used to do, we asked? Well, more like Pierre Bonnard, Mike suggests.