Into the Woods

“I was able to feel that I am in the middle of this huge world in front of this mountain, which I could see in its entirety, and also I could be surrounded by my own painting.” — Alex Kanevsky, (“Mt. Nephin,” 2025, 24 inches x 32 inches)

With a geographical background that includes a Russian birthplace, an education in Lithuania and a professional career launched in Philadelphia, artist Alex Kanevsky is now based in the White Mountains. It is an area he loves for its mountains, forests and stunning scenery, much of which appears in his celebrated oil paintings.

Kanevsky and his wife, artist Hollis Heichemer, ski almost every day in the winter, across a snowy landscape that appears in some of his canvases, such as this one, “Hay Bale with Snow II,” 2024, 18 inches x 18 inches.

Living here with his wife, artist Hollis Heichemer (who was profiled in the Sept./Oct. 2024 issue of this magazine), Kanevsky says that, as the chaos and confusion of the COVID pandemic took hold, he found inspiration in the region’s natural serenity.

“It was a rough time,” says Kanevsky, explaining that both he and Heichemer lost parents in those years. “A lot of changes were going on in our lives. The parents were setting off on their next journey, and everything felt very much in flux.” At that point, the artist chose to create a massive landscape that fully immersed him in the surroundings.

“It is incredibly beautiful here, and it is pretty empty out in the woods, so I just thought I would do this large painting of a mountain nearby,” says Kanevsky. “It was a very large canvas, trailered out to the location, and I needed a whole contraption to prevent it from flying away. It was exciting and interesting, and like an extreme sport of painting.”

The resulting work is not entirely realistic, but it does represent the subject. “You can recognize the mountain and trees, but what is really happening is that everything I was going through before I arrived at the canvas ended up in the painting.” He explains that, while in the field in front of the mountain, he realized it probably looked the same as it had 10,000 years earlier.

“I felt like this mountain, and that kind of landscape, was the only thing that we could hold on to; everything else just keeps on flying away,” says the artist. “That was a very interesting feeling, and I think the painting is more or less about that searching for a center that’s timeless.”

Kanevsky is equally renowned for his fluid, evocative figurative paintings. He says that, while his approach is similar, the experience differs. “When you are painting a landscape, you, the artist, are within it, but when you are painting a figure, you are existing outside of your subject. It’s obvious, but it’s also an essential point to make.”

Featured as part of his “Everything Twice” 2024 exhibition at the Hollis Taggart Gallery in New York City, this oil-on-wood piece, titled “Las Meninas” (2024, 24 inches x 24 inches), depicts roosters and chickens in dynamic motion.

With expressionistic brush strokes and strong colors, Kanevsky’s figures appear animated and dynamic. “People are never still,” he says. “They are always in motion. It is what defines us as people.” He goes on to explain that his work is not “a story about what I saw.” Instead, he strives to make his work look the way reality feels to him. “To me, the painting is just as real as that person.”

This ability to present vibrant, experiential paintings to collectors has made Kanevsky a sought-after artist in galleries across the country and around the world. He often exhibits at the Dolby Chadwick in San Francisco and at Hollis Taggart in New York City.

But his workspace is now the small studio at the edge of the woods next to his home. “I take time with my paintings, and you need continuity, so when you show up the next morning, you need to have a very clear picture in your mind of where you left off the night before, and you need to feel the same way in the space.” He describes his studio as a calm, quiet environment that allows for few distractions. “When I come to the studio, I totally know where I am, and, within a painting, where I need to go next.”

“Everything else in the woods, all the trees and animals, they’re just within this moment and not really concerned with the rest of the world.” He says that, with this “kind of life-and-death business going on all the time in the woods,” it can be very liberating for painting. “It has allowed me to work without worrying what it all means and where I’m going with it and what my place in the world is — all those things that we’re supposed to be worried about,” says Kanevsky. “Instead, inside my studio, within this natural environment, it is my life. My wife and I are both here for the woods and the work, and we love it.”