"All I want to do is sit in my studio and paint!"

Glen Rock painter to display his landscapes

Friday, February 29, 2008
Last Updated Friday February 29, 2008, EST 6:28 AM

BY EVELYN SHIH

WHAT: Art exhibit.
WHERE: Kurth Cottage at The Valley Hospital, 223 N. Van Dien Ave., Ridgewood. Call 201-447-8135 for more information.
WHEN: Saturday through March 30. 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. weekdays, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekends.
HOW MUCH: Free.

Painter Peter Liman has always had wandering eyes. It wasn't until retirement that he put what he saw on paper.

The son of a steamship mogul, Liman traveled to the Caribbean at a very young age. He went to college in North Carolina and later traveled to the Mediterranean as a Navy officer. He's done a stint as a businessman in South Africa.

"You're working, and hopefully you enjoy what you're doing," said the Glen Rock resident. "But you still have things that you have an interest in, and you don't get to pursue them until you have the extra time."

Now when he travels, it's all in the pursuit of the next beautiful scene. Liman is exhibiting 20-plus canvases from his eight years of artful retirement at The Valley Hospital in Ridgewood throughout March. Liman's work is mostly landscape, but the paintings show "anything from California to southern France to Norway."

"Any place you go has an inner beauty," Liman said. "Painting is just my way of capturing that memory, a little different from taking out your camera and snapping a picture."

Liman's studio is buried in the Catskills in Maplecrest, N.Y., an area favored by the Hudson River School of artists and full of seasonal beauty.

"To me it's the Shangri-La of the area," said Liman. "It's just so beautiful and peaceful, and it's just therapeutic."

But one painting in the upcoming exhibit, "Willows on the Pond," is of a less exotic location: Saddle River Park. It's Liman's tribute to the beauty around his home. He's also painted scenes from the area surrounding his studio, such as a skier from Windham Mountain or an antique truck permanently parked at the side of a road.

Getting involved in the community and giving back is a big part of his artistic life, Liman said. Every year, he organizes two Windham arts festivals, where visitors are invited to spend a weekend meeting the artists of Windham in galleries and in their studios. He also runs an annual sand castle contest at CD Lane Park in Maplecrest.

"My biggest difficulty is really finding time to paint as opposed to just organizing," he said. "Sometimes I say to myself, 'Heck, I'm helping all these people, when all I want to do is sit in my studio and paint!' "

E-mail: shih@northjersey.com