“Then he asks, “Do you have a favorite?” I point to Along the Line, and he gives me kind of a hard time and says, “Is that just because it’s the biggest? And that it won the award?” I said, “No. When I painted that, I did several studies, and I thought I was ready to do a larger version of it. In the making of that painting, I became a better painter. To answer the invitation of that painting, I had to be a better painter at the end of it than I was when I started.””

“I would encourage anybody who has an inkling, whether it’s creative or scientific or political or in media. I mean, all of these things come together to bring something like this about there’s so many aspects, so many hands, so many hearts, so many years of work that put anything on the moon, and it’s such a special crescendo of humanity that’s bigger than our two paintings.”

“The real sweet part of plein air painting is studying the scene. It’s not meditative, but rather, active.”

“The exhibition’s title, Further In, refers to each landscape’s invitation to Joshua to notice more, to dig in deeper. But it should also serve as a suggestion to visitors of Groveland Gallery whose close examination will be rewarded.”

“He paints places you feel you recognize, even if you’ve never been there,” Drake said. “They are peaceful, and peace-filled.”

“There was something about how the undulating rhythms all roll toward the well-worn middle ground that creates a connectedness between the right and left of the canvas. No matter how far our attention strays, there is always a way back to common ground.”

“Over the following four evenings, my appreciation for the unique qualities of each day grew. ”

“There’s so much knowledge in this painting. There are equal amounts of emotion and a really masterful handling of each of the tools, by which I mean, line, shape, color, value, edges, and texture.”

“We’d be so far gone to the woods and our imaginations that my mom would often have to ring an old ship bell on the porch to call us back to the house”

“During that time,” Joshua says, “the sun came and went, people stopped and chatted, and amidst it all this painting emerged.”

“In the shadow of the buildings of St. Paul, Minnesota, is a 636-acre park that was once an urban ruin. Joshua Cunningham says it is an ideal place for a plein air painter. Why?”

“As the northern wind stings his face and ice crystals accumulate on his beard, he scans the horizon for the right scene that he can transfer to canvas, thus preserving the beauty of the river cloaked in winter.”