On this beautiful autumn day in upstate new york I took a short motorcycle ride to visit Olana, which was the home of Frederic Edwin Church (1826–1900), one of the major figures in the Hudson River School of landscape painting. The centerpiece of Olana is an eclectic villa composed of many styles, difficult to categorize, which overlooks parkland and a working farm designed by the artist. As well, the residence has a wide view of the Hudson River valley, the Catskill Mountains and the Taconic Range. Church and his wife Isabel (1836–1899) named their estate after a fortress-treasure house in ancient Greater Persia (modern-day Armenia), which also overlooked a river valley.
It is truly a work of art and much more. While committed to the natural sciences, Frederic Church was "always concerned with including a spiritual dimension in his works." This walk of mine in the autumn air overtook me with a sense of a interacting with his work and a deeper understanding of my surroundings, I was a part of it all.
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