Artist's notes...

time period marks the end of Albany as a frontier rivertown. The age of sail was about to give way to steam power and the Erie Canal would soon accelerate the interior development of New York State. The pace of life was about to quicken.
          The painting depicts a quiet riverfront. The workday is winding down as a bright moon illuminates a mackerel sky, its silvery light reflecting off a calm Hudson River. A group of merchants, relaxing after loading a wagon, discusses the day’s events. Warm ribbons of lantern light catch the rounded cobblestones of the street. The sturdy sloops creek in the gentle breeze. A solitary crewman, aboard a topsail schooner anchored in deeper water, lantern in hand, makes his final rounds before coming ashore. Evening has long been an artistic metaphor for endings and I wanted my work to symbolize the end of the colonial years in what was to become a bustling industrial age.