Cynthia Knott

Knott's other influences include the fluorescent work of Dan Flavin, the linear abstraction of Barnett Newman, the color field painter Helen Frankenthaler, the landscapes of Jane Wilson, Hokusai's The Great Wave, and wave and ocean scenes of Winslow Homer. The shimmering quality of light often found in her seascapes has also drawn comparison to the 19th century American "sublime" movement, Luminism.

First, Knott primes the canvas with a layer of sizing. This tightens the linen surface. Knott builds up the surface by painting this sizing—typically rabbit skin glue—by back-and-forth brushstrokes. This creates texture which serves to enhance the play of light in her paintings.

Knott often paints her seascapes en plein air. She has said that "The only way you can really understand light is to look at it. You have to be out there and see those clouds going by." Many of her paintings depict coastal views near her home, Springs, NY in the north of East Hampton (town), New York—including Cartwright Shoal in Gardiner's Bay. For nocturnal scenes, Knott has painted a local salt marsh, which has a luminescent glow.

As of August 2013, she was represented by DC Moore Gallery, New York.

In turn, a few of Collins' poems are inspired by Knott's paintings. A United States Poet Laureate, Collins dedicated a poem inspired by his experience gazing at her seascapes. His poem, "Paintings of the Sea (For Cynthia Knott)", was reproduced in conjunction with Knott's exhibition Gardiners Bay, May 8 to Jaune 14, 2002. Another poem, "Horizon," which was published in his 2005 poetry collection The Art of Drowning, is also inspired by her work.

Cynthia Knott received her BA from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston in 1971. She went on to earn her BFA at the School of Visual Arts, New York in 1975 and her MFA at New York University in 1989. Prior to pursuing art, Knott attended Washington University in St. Louis, intending to study Marine Biology. Knott dropped out after a year after realizing she wanted to pursue her interest in drawing. Knott's study of and later artistic fascination with the ocean also draws upon family history. Knott's great-grandfather was an Irish sea captain. Her series, "Migration," refers to the Atlantic voyage made by her family from Ireland by boat.

Cynthia Knott (born March 20, 1952, Newark, New Jersey, United States) is a painter known for her horiztonally-oriented seascapes which recall the "multiforms" of Mark Rothko and the later work of J.M.W. Turner.