Inward Journey, Oil on canvas. 2008 (sold 04/08 )

The Reason, Oil on Canvas. 2008

So here are a couple of my newer paintings. I was hoping to have a photo of a third, that I just re-finished, but no luck getting a photo of it yet. I’ll post when I can, but just to give an idea of what I’m up to, I decided to post what I have now. My goal is to dialogue with other painters out there that really care about both the technical and conceptual aspects of their work. My palette in each of these is really rather minimal, but I try to stretch other boundaries to find visual interest.

The painting called Inward Journey is really more of an attempt to map out some technical questions (since I’ve mainly worked with the figure in the past). I wanted to see if I could find visual interest in a “fictional” landscape using really ambiguous forms. I really like the idea of not telling too much in a story, anyway. My approach was to emphasize soft vs. sharp and light/dark contrasts. I think a concept took over about mid-way though, and began to alter my focus (or even interest) slightly toward the work that I haven’t been able to post yet. The red painting “The Reason” (and most recent) is an attempt to involve a current interest I have in some recent discoveries in physics. I wanted to make it personal–an emotive space, maybe even meditative. My goal was to make it somehow not frightening, but hopeful. I’m not really trying to illustrate so much as create ambience though. The palette is very limited. A red/blue set close to complementary, flake white and Dutch brown (Williamsburg).