Rip Van Winkle – JP3076

It was such a pleasure to read again the story of Rip Van Winkle and to interpret the story in a painting style that I think is well explained as American Folk Art Illustration. The style originates from such predecessors as Rufus Porter, Edward Hicks, Peter Ompir, all proponents of a stylized, decorative, interpretive painting style.
Take a voyage with me up the Hudson Valley into the Catskill Mountains. There we find a little village of largely Dutch immigrants in the pre Revolutionary War period. We meet a man called Rip Van Winkle and will follow him on a very unusual trip up into the mountains where he falls asleep (after imbibing a fair amount of liquor) and awakens long after the war is over and America has its 1st president, George Washington.