Paul T. Nagano was trained in oils, but a 1974 return visit to Japan found him inspired by the Nanga School of painters’ approach to landscape, particularly in their expressive use of watercolor and fine, dotted brushwork to capture the poetry of a scene. Thereafter watercolor became his chosen medium: “Watercolors want not to be anything but their essential selves: liquid and fluid, reflecting reality in a pool – now disturbed, now still. This is the transformation from reality to another reality, each part seen and rethought and reassembled as a reflection, all the parts joining in a common harmony.” Late September Esplanade Runner contains a bit of water in the form of the sparkling Storrow Lagoon set between the jogger and the brownstones and skyscrapers beyond. Nagano’s eye for composition transforms an everyday scene into an intriguing interplay of horizontal and vertical elements, while his love of brilliant color comes to the fore in rendering the changing fall leaves.

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