Rough Equivalents

When your eye travels over an image without thinking, “That’s the light on the figure and this other light indicates the background,” then you’re seeing the whole painting and not the parts.

"Green Ground"-acrylic on linen,  14" X 11"

"Lilac Skirt"- acrylic on linen, 10" X 10"

Color pulled through color can unify a painting, and so can a complex surface. How this is achieved--through heavy impasto or thin, overlapping layers of paint--is mostly a matter of personal preference. What’s crucial is the transportation, the visual impact of the painting itself.

"Garden Gaze"-acrylic on paper, 12" X 9"

In some respects, work on the smaller acrylics pointed the way to the larger oils. Though drag and density are different from one medium to another and problems of scale change,  the goal was the same: to build up a physicality of the overall image. When I finished “In The Garden,” I felt as though I had opened the gate.

"In The Garden"-oil on canvas, 60" X 48"

The most recent oil-painting, “Figure & Agave,” tries to challenge the distinction between color-shifts and mark-making. Here, an edge can be anywhere there’s a break in the surface. It can mean a break in form or value or even paint-application.

These days, I’m working closer to the canvas. I do still step back to get perspective, but with my face nearly touching the paint, I seem to get the longest view.

"Figure & Agave"-oil on canvas,  48" x 36"