For this exhibition Peter Edlund created three paintings that relate directly to three of Dickinson’s poems. In this series Edlund returns to the antique palette and tone of his late 1990’s paintings that were inspired by Martin Johnson Heade and other Hudson River School painters. In contrast to those artists who idolized far-flung, exotic plants and landscapes, Dickinson was content to observe the nature outside her door. In Dead Bird, Edlund’s elegiac tone echoes Dickinson’s mournful one. The bird hangs indifferently from the broken branch as if “Gored through and through with Death”. In Morning Glory the silhouetted flowers employ a technique popular during Victorian times. His highly detailed and meticulous painting style captures the roving Clematis that can be found in bloom in Wave Hill’s Flower Garden during May. In honor of Emily Dickinson, he created a special bookmark based on Dead Bird that is available for visitors.

Peter Edlund draws from a wide range of artistic and literary sources for his paintings which reinvigorate historic interpretations of landscape. His vibrant Homeland Security paintings, based on Ansel Adams’ WWII photographs of Japanese-American internment camps, were exhibited at Jody Goldman Fine Arts, Boston, MA; in Tainted Landscapes at the Zilkha Gallery, Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT; and were recently featured in Orion Magazine. Primal Visions: Albert Bierstadt ‘Discovers’ America was exhibited at the Montclair Art Museum, Montclair, NJ; the Columbus Art Museum, Columbus, OH; and The Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, CA. Paintings from his Another America and Audubon series’ were exhibited in Verging on Real at Wave Hill in 2001. He has had several residencies at The MacDowell Colony in Peterborough, NH and is currently working on a commission for its centennial anniversary. Edlund is the recipient of a Pollock-Krasner Foundation grant and a Milton Avery Fellowship.