Danny Rolph
January 1990 was my first trip to New York. On a cold morning I caught a train from Manhattan to Montauk changing at Jamaica. I had read that lots of artists I admired had lived on Long Island and I wanted to go as far east as I could. The train journey was eventful, I remember everyone warning me not to leave it too late getting back to the City! So, 30 years later during Lockdown in the UK I wanted to recollect that day. I decided on a diptych format to create a division between the two parts of Long island as I saw it with Brooklyn, Queens and the city I was leaving on the left transitioning to the rural as your eye wanders right. I chose a thicker triplewall to paint upon for its extended optical effects. My memories are primarily of the striking angularity in the architecture in the city that carried into Long Island, becoming less frequent as the journey progressed. I watched from the window of the train whilst listening to P-Funk on a cassette tape in my Walkman. I remember this overwhelming pink hue upon the buildings as the train chugged eastwards. In this painting I reference the coast and waves viewed that day in the lower part of the right hand panel. A clear angular dark shape on the right represents the end of that journey as I looked out on the freezing ocean and returned (slowly) on the late train back to the city. This painting is a recollection but I also view it as a kind of allegory relating to the urban and the rural, like what you often see in Pre and Early Renaissance Painting?