P A I N T I N G S

 

Painting is a practice that hasn't come as naturally to me as drawing. It's a medium I've had to work at very deliberately and diligently to attain any semblance of fluency. 

I began really just drawing with paint: applying thin layers, one upon another, gradually building intensity and value. The more I painted, the more confident I became, I began to lay down a color - or a combination of colors, in one stroke. I started to enjoy the many ways in which it's a departure from drawing: loading the brush, fat, thin, wet, dry, then the touch down & lift off, the spring of the brush making contact with the surface of the form. There's a freedom there - a letting go. And then it begins to really encourage improvisation, just responding to color, temperature, value - without thinking. Like any practice, the more I worked, the more I began to respond intuitively - it began to become a part of me. Whatever distances existed eventually began to dissolve - where I could just live through the stuff. 

So these paintings reflect my continuing evolution with the medium of oil color. The imagery and approach are essentially the same as the Meditation series of drawings. 

It never ceases to amaze me how one practice informs and enlightens another - how every medium imparts its influence. How, to venture into a realm less familiar, arouses and awakens - renews the senses, and serves as a welcome reminder of all there is to learn, and the discoveries yet to be made.