The intimate realtionship with nature which Les Reker defines in his views of the Pennsylvania landscape emerges as the artist's search for tranquility. Though concerned with the essential of description, the paintings transcend verisimilitude, transporting the viewer to a feeling of place as well as a comprehension of the power of nature. Painted en plein air, on site, the paintings reflect the artist's philosophical encounter with the macrocosm as he maintains an adherence to the visual information before him. A realist artist since his graduate school days at Queen's College, Reker has concentrated his attention on the close observation of nature as discussed by Emerson and Thoreau in the 19th century, whose impact on the tradition of American lanscape painting arose as the Hudson River School. Its artistic leader, Thomas Cole, left a legacy to the 20th century, favoring the particular and the specific over the visionary or the imaginary. In this tradition and spririt, Reker's landscapes make note of both the size and the feeling of their creation. The paintings on view at the Lore Degenstein Gallery continue the gallery's commitment to artists who are affiliated with college art departments. Reker is Associate Professor of Art at Moravian College in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, where he also leads a substantive program of exhibitions as Director of the Payne Gallery, drawing upon art from museums and major collections. During his twelve years at Moravian, he has maintained his professional artistic productivity with a major New York gallery and is currently represented by a gallery in Philidelphia. Reker's recent small-scale landscapes resulted from a series of paintings begun on his sabbatical leave in 1991. Exploring the cataracts and streams along the Susquehanna, Lehigh, and Delaware Rivers in Bucks, Lehigh, and Carbon Counties in Pennsylvania, Reker found through philosophical inquiry a new comprehension of the intuitive construction of the landscape when immersed in its presence. It is these small works nestled among the larger exhibition pieces that become the framework for an understanding of the commitment an artist may find in the association of experience and intellect. For the viewer there is pure delight - the familiar resonance of the forest and stream playing quiet harmonies in the paintings of Les Reker. Lehigh River, Jim Thorpe, PA. Les Reker. Oil on canvas. 1991. 17 x 72" Collection of the artist.