Piri Halasz reviews Sea and Stone: The Thimble Islands – Paintings by Arthur Yanoff at the Mattatuck Museum in Waterbury, Connecticut, on view through July 24, 2016.

Halasz writes that "Yanoff, who is based in the Berkshires, has over the years developed a technique that combines swathes, swabs and dabs of acrylic paint with small collage elements (usually bits of paper, but sometimes more substantial objects). This turns out to be an ideal way to suggest small islands, rocky outcroppings, bits of flotsam and jetsam and occasionally living things– all floating upon or soaring above the open water. The effect is especially persuasive when the canvas is horizontal, and one feels that one is looking down on it from an aerial view. On the other hand, a vertical may create the feeling that one is looking at a cross-section of the Sound, with the lower part of the canvas suggesting underwater phenomena."