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ALL PAINTINGS SHARE A DUAL NATURE. THEY ARE SIMULTANEOUSLY IMAGES AND OBJECTS.

I find the process of translating the idea of an image into an object fascinating and challenging.

A couple of years ago I moved to a house in the woods, and after a while began putting trees in my paintings. What started as an appreciation of line and shape and nature has lead to several recent paintings in which trees stand like sentinels in a world shared with structures made by human beings.

Paintings are handmade objects, yet they are not very natural. Instead they mirror a very personal experience of the world around and within an artist. There are trees all around me where I live and work, but these are not the trees in my paintings. My paintings create a world for me, and, perhaps, for you.

How I make a painting, my technique, is largely a factor of time. I typically spend two or three months working on a painting, and the continual, daily flow of choices grows into a relationship. Only through this relationship can I reach the point in time where I feel that I understand the painting and what it will ultimately become.

After decades of making paintings, the most obvious characteristic of my technique is my preference for flat, clearly defined areas of paint. My emphasis is on edge and shape, more so than on line or space. Beyond these basics, there is a subtle build-up of layers of paint that create a surface quality that is substantial and finished in appearance. All though my use of color is often understated, my simple vocabulary of edge and shape finds its most exuberant expression in my frequent use of pattern.

When people see my work, I like them to bring their own interpretations. The disc-like shapes that earlier appeared in my paintings, and the trees and towers that now inhabit them, have no personal symbolic meanings. They are instead agents of subtle, dramatic tension within the lucid stillness of the picture. They often share their common space while suggesting a longing for convergence or a reluctant parting. In any case, they stay put where they are and only find liberation in the imagination of the viewer.

Green Thoughts I

2006
acrylic on canvas
36 x 48 in