What if Thomas Cole had a power sander?

With the aid of power tools, the iconic Hudson River School artist might have made paintings like Stephen Hannock. A renowned modern-day heir to the legacy of Cole and his peers, Hannock has a technique--developed by accident, as this terrific Forbes profile relates--of building up layers of paint and sanding them to a glassy-smooth finish, yielding rich and luminous canvases.

Hannock will be speaking and signing copies of his new monograph Sunday afternoon at the Thomas Cole Historic Site in Catskill. The Daily Mail reports NPR documentarian Robin Young will be on hand to cover the event.

Image: Hannock's The Oxbow, After Church, After Cole, Flooded, Green Light, which hangs in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

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