We caught up with this week’s cover artist, Gavin Spielman, in Washington, D.C. where he was spending the weekend with his six-year-old daughter, Sage, and his wife, Alison.

Q: The cherry blossoms are out there, I know, even though I can’t see them here in East Hampton. But I can almost smell them. The scene is quite different from your setting, “Red Barn,” that’s on our cover. There the trees are leafless.

A: That’s right. It’s a far cry from Washington, considering that the scene is from Cutchogue on the North Fork.

Q: How would you characterize the work, aesthetically speaking?

A: It’s a study in composition, in symmetry specifically. I wanted to show the spatial difference between the sky and the ground. The red barn is a beacon of warmth and connects the two elements. My goal was to omit the extraneous objects.

Q; How is this piece similar to other paintings that you do?

A: I’m always working with temperature fields, warm vs. cool, and how these complements are working. First, I like to keep the painting loose, to keep out the details. Then I create nuances.

Q: You like to compare painting to cooking.

A: Yes. I like to cook. I know how something will taste or look like before it’s finished. I rely on instinct. I add salt and pepper, spices at the final stage.

Q: That’s like nuances in your art.

A: Right. I know if the work (dish) will fly in the initial stage.

Q: You also teach at Parsons School of Design where you graduated. (He also studied music and philosophy at another institution before he went to Parsons.) Can you compare teaching and painting, like you did with cooking?

A: Well, I think teaching has helped me be more organized in my art. For example, my studio used to be messy. I say to the students now, “A clean environment leads to clean art.” I also give my students assignments that I also have done, like painting still lifes to stimulate color choices. And I always give them a self portrait to do. I do them from time-to-time if I’m facing certain challenges.

Q: What do you think the most valuable lesson is that you’ve learned as an artist, not as a teacher or cook?

A: I have learned the importance of giving myself over completely to my work. That the day-to-day experience of painting is rooted in my blood. Everyday, I establish a rhythm, like being a runner or a fisherman.

A: I can see how painting for you relates to a lot of different professions.

Q: Yes, but my life really revolves around my family. That’s the most important thing.

–Marion Wolberg Weiss