Recent Paintings en Route

It’s always interesting to watch one’s work change in both subtle and dramatic ways. A fairly dramatic approach in my painting practice occured a few years ago when I moved into pure abstraction and now there are subtle shifts happening within that realm. These days I find myself exploring more gestural mark making and layers with a variety of  overt textures. I think both of those interests were rekindled in Italy this summer from seeing those wonderful palimpsested walls all over Florence. For me, theses walls hold a presence that is endlessly inspiring.

Actually, I  love finding these kinds of textures any and everywhere! Here are some close up views of the large old wooden tables in the studio where I teach.

The process and progress of a painting can seem fickle or, at the very least. rather  mysterious at times.  I will sometimes feel a work is finished only to discover later I want to work back into or completely change  it again. Or, I think  a painting is in progress, but after sitting in my studio for a while, starts to feel finished! So maybe I should find a new way to describe these two distinctions and just say something like – painting en route – knowing that eventually it will will arrive at its destination and feel resolved. Experience now tells me completion of a painting might reside in its present form or that it could evolve slowly out of many more generations of paint.

I have always appreciated texture in paintings. For me, the shift in density and physicality of the surface amplifies the visual pleasure of  seeing the actual work. Yet, somehow I think its a fairly recent challenge that I have embraced in my own pieces – at least in the abstract work anyway. More and more, I am making paintings that are mixed media.  By adding such materials as  powdered marble, dry pigments. pumice. sand, cold wax, chalk, oil bars, pastels, graphite, etc. into the paint I am able to orchestrate all kinds of unexpected and varied textures. A great workshop with my friend Rebecca Crowell deserves mention here! That experience definitely  opened the doors to this myriad of possibilities and experimentation in oils for me!

I can remember painting teachers saying not to ‘draw with the paint’ but that is exactly what I am finding interesting these days! Some of these marks are purely intuitive and invented in the moment throwing caution to the wind.  At other times, I am working, however loosely, from some kind of source material to inspire calligraphic ideas.

In the end, its the process and challenges ‘en route’ that makes my days in the studio a fascinating place to be!

I am reminded of some great thoughts by Confucious:

To experience without abstraction is to sense the world. To experience with abstraction is to know the world. These two experiences are indistinguishable. Their construction differs but their effect is the same.

Beyond the gate of experience flows the Way. Which is ever great and more subtle than the world.