Massachusetts realist Jack Standish is a master of watercolor and egg tempera painting. Influenced by the work of Andrew Wyeth, Edward Hopper and Maxfield Parrish, Standish uses his paintings to tell a story and create a sense of place. The dramatic architectural settings of the paintings are purely fictional, encouraging the viewer to enter the scene and make the story his or her own. Egg tempera, which mixes dry pigment, egg yolk and water, allows Standish to concentrate on the deep shadows while keeping the painting alive with clean, fresh color. He uses a drybrush technique for his watercolors, painting in thin layers to create the desired balance of lights and darks and achieve the level of detail he seeks.