Have Brushes, Will Travel

A painter who claims to hate traveling has written a "travel book" illustrated with his own brightly colored landscapes. What's that all about? Wolf Kahn's America: An Artist's Travels is actually a record of the American locales Brattleboro resident Wolf Kahn has visited over the past forty-odd years in order to teach a workshop, attend an exhibition of his work or fulfill a commission from a wealthy patron. A refugee from Nazi Germany, born in 1927, he says he prefers the comforts of home to the anxieties of travel, but he finds visual inspiration everywhere he goes- even in a restaurant parking lot overlooking a marsh. The painting sites range from Maine to Florida, with excursions to Yosemite and New Mexico. Wolf talks about his why and how he paints... and spending his life "learning the ropes" after a junior high encounter.