Honoring the Artist: Paul Rafferty

This week's cover artist, British-born Paul Rafferty, is a man on the move, literally and figuratively. Not only is he traveling from his California home to attend his opening at the Grenning Gallery in Sag Harbor, but soon afterwards, he and his family are moving to Mougnis, France, near Cannes.

This uprooting doesn't seem to bother Mr. Rafferty as the following conversation will prove: he's definitely someone who thrives on experiencing diverse places and cultures. The inactive life is not for him.

Q: What philosophy or world-view propels you to keep moving, to live life to its fullest?

A: Life is too short. You might as well live different places. I love to have options. But then again, I do get bored. When I realize, "The grass is always greener on the other side."

Q: Your wife is French. Is that one reason why you're returning to France?

A: We already lived there, but even if it's been twenty years of living away, I always expected to go back with a new vision. It's also convenient. In an hour, you can be any place in Europe. I have eight passports, so I have a lot of choices. Besides, my daughters, who are four and six years old, are not as fixed now, as far as school goes.

Q: Despite your choices of a locale, what attracts you to a place as far as your art goes?

A: I like the familiarity of a place; I feel that way about this area because I came here to paint during the last year. I have great enthusiasm for the East Coast generally and the flat coast and fields that I find here. And I love the drama of light.

Q: How does your cover, "Weathering the Storm," which features the Maidstone Club, serve as an example of these aesthetic passions?

A: In my show at the Grenning Gallery, I am painting very large. The cover is my largest painting. I have dropped the horizon line as well. The light is dramatic, but the setting is also turbulent. There's a rugged wildness despite the affluence of the Maidstone Club. I see the Maidstone as vulnerable.

Q: You have made a contradictory statement about the work: despite the wealth that the structure represents, it's vulnerable. Did you have that in mind?

A: Yes. I like the familiar in life, which suggests stability, but life is also delicate and vulnerable. I painted the Kennedy residence in Cape Cod and found the same juxtaposition, although I didn't realize it was the Kennedy's home at the time.

Q: Do you also apply these qualities to other subjects besides landscapes?

A: Yes - to still lives, for example. But I look for things that aren't too beautified or contrived. I like what's "edgy." The main thing is, again, I look for the light quality. Light is vulnerable, too; it's fleeting. The light is different every place I've painted. It's blue-grey in the Hamptons, hot and brilliant in Southern California. It's golden in France.

Q: What does painting mean to you, no matter where you are painting?

A: If I need calming because of something that's bothering me, I go to bed thinking about my work. Painting for me is so absorbing. I am so lucky to be doing what I love to do. And the best is yet to come.

- Marion Wolberg Weiss

Mr. Rafferty's exhibit will be on view at Sag Harbor's Grenning Gallery. The opening is June 16. The exhibit will be on view from June 16 to July 8. The artist can be reached at www.raffertyart.com

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