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Bora Bora Coastline is based off of multiple aerial views of the coast of Bora Bora. It's not a place I've ever been and one I am unlikely to visit, but the magic of tropical beaches and their colors lingers in my imagination. I am fascinated by aerial views depicting shapes of the waves as they move toward the shore. In this painting I am particularly fond of the tiny impasto waves along the beach.

Bora Bora Coastline, 2017, 20 x 30 Inches, Oil on Canvas

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The Sea Life Series came to be because I was playing with Sculptamold on a craft project and I started to notice how easily it could form coral-like shapes and formations. This led to a series of abstract pieces where I utilized the Sculptamold to varying degrees and worked with different techniques to create the "sea" in each painting.

All of the paintings in the series are meant to give a sense of being underwater. I spent a lot of time looking at images of coral reefs while I worked on these paintings in order to help develop my color palette.

Sea Life 1 is almost a pure color field, with a few small coral-like elements. The color field was created using a glazing technique utilizing various shades of blue and green. There is a sense of light shining through the water, not to far from its surface. There is a crisscross texture created by the underlying layer of gesso that is intended to give a feeling of currents and eddies in the water.

Sea Life 1, 2016, 24 x 24 Inches, Oil & Sculptamold on Wood

Sea Life 2, 2016, 24 x 24 Inches, Oil & Sculptamold on Wood

With Sea Life 2, I became interested in creating a work that was somewhere between a painting and a sculpture. I thought I would like to create something that couldn't be entirely photographed. I used the "back" of a wooden panel. (Since I treat and gesso my own panels, there isn't really a back. The back is where I decide it is.)

I liked the idea of the coral pieces growing outside the edges of the painting, as though they couldn't be contained. The painting part of the work is much more energetic and chaotic than in Sea Life 1. I used some metallic and iridescent paint as well. I was thinking of the sense of energy and motion that a coral reef would have, of a place that is teeming with life.

In Sea Life 3 and Sea Life 4 I made the coral formations a much more prominent part of the artwork. In the sea areas I utilized a small sponge to add texture to the variegated greens and blues. I used deeper colors to suggest a little more depth to the water. In each of these works I wanted to give a sense of motion, of the movement of undersea life.

Sea Life 3, 2016, 24 x 24 Inches, Oil & Sculptamold on Wood

Sea Life 4, 2016, 24 x 24 Inches, Oil & Sculptamold on Wood

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This work was intended to be purely abstract and to focus on a color theme. I created it in glazes of different blues and violets (although the violet is much less evident in the final outcome.) As I worked with this piece, I began to see cloud shapes in it, a stormy sky with the sun illuminating the clouds from behind just a little, the way it sometimes does on a stormy day. I'm intrigued by working this way, with a combination of planning (the color palette, the glazing technique), and serendipity (the semi-abstract image), and then workmanship (going back into the painting and manipulating it to achieve the final result).

Storm Cloud Abstraction, 2016, 24 x 24 Inches, Oil on Canvas

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Arabian Sea is based off of photographs I took on a visit to Jumeirah Beach in Dubai, UAE. I created the painting almost 8 years after the trip and my reference photos were taken with a very basic digital camera, so they were not the best. I printed them and worked from the prints and my memory of the place. When I was there it was a drizzly day in December. The temperature was in the low 60s and the beach was deserted, so I walked along the water's edge entirely alone. The sea was a beautiful pale green. One thing I particularly love about this painting is the highly textured impasto of the waves. I have been thinking about revisiting this color in some new work.

Arabian Sea, 2015, 24 x 24 Inches, Oil on Canvas

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Spring Greens is a painting I created purely around a color theme, particularly with a focus on the pale greens of early spring. The composition took a number of shapes before I developed the color field into something I was happy with. The yellows and deeper green shades provide contrast to the main field of color. I originally intended to have this painting hang sideways (and wouldn't be offended if anyone else decided they like it better this way). But when I hang it the way it is shown here, I imagine a still pool surrounded by trees and reflecting their budding leaves.

Spring Greens, 2015, 24 x 36 Inches, Oil on Canvas

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The Green Falls is a painting that surprised me in its creation. I intended to create a completely abstract work. I had a color scheme I wanted to work with and as I played with it on the canvas, it started to resolve itself into the shape of something recognizable. I started to see vines in the paint, and falling water, with light shining through from behind. I resolved the image, shaping the leaves and vines, bringing in some deep red leaves, and adding some rivulets of water. It was an interesting experience, combining accident with intention, and is something I've continued to pursue in other works. The Green Falls looks extraordinarily different in different lighting, with sometimes the green, red, or golden tones being more prominent.

The Green Falls, 2015, 30 x 40 Inches, Oil on Canvas

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I'm going to be returning to some
of my earlier work in blog posts to provide some context for these works, starting with the oldest work I have posted on my site and moving forward.

The Leaf Series focuses on magnified leaves, all measuring 24 x 24 inches. The works in this series emphasize the abstract forms of the leaves. The works vary in how much of the leaf's outer edges are visible. For example, in Maple Leaf and Sweet Gum Leaf 1, the leaf shape is cropped out of the painting so that the viewer can concentrate on the pattern of veins and the color field of the leaf's surface.

In Sweet Gum Leaf 2 and 3, the outer shape of the leaf is more defined, in order to depict a little of the serrated edges that are a hallmark of sweet gum leaves.

Creating this series involved many leaf-hunts and much close observation of leaves. The leaf-hunts led me to look at the leaves more closely than I ever had before. (I also had a small helper, who volunteered himself to assist in my search, so not only was I moved to spend more time looking closely at leaves, but someone else was too.)

None of the paintings depicts a specific leaf, but each painting based on observation a number of similar leaves. Each leaf is an exuberant bursts of color, but can also bring about a state of deep contemplation, as one gets lost in fields of color.

Maple Leaf, 2015, 24 x 24 Inches, Oil on Wood

Sweet Gum Leaf 1, 2015, 24 x 24 Inches Oil on Wood

Sweet Gum Leaf 3, 2015, 24 x 24 Inches, Oil on Wood

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Blue Sea/Drifting

5/8/2018

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Blue Sea/Drifting, 2018, 24 x 24 Inches, Oil & Sculptamold on Wood

This is the first new work I've completed in a couple months. ME/CFS makes it difficult and sometimes impossible to paint. When I have my worst symptoms, I have trouble thinking clearly, holding on to thoughts that seem to float away as I try to grasp them. I sometimes feel like I am floating too, drifting between consciousness and sleep. I need to keep my environment still and free from chaos. This work is a reflection of that need and the sensation of floating. It evokes the sea in a way meant to touch the imagination, suggesting sunlight filtering through ocean water. The small sculptural elements are reminiscent of corals.

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