Portfolio of Works

Start with a small plan, done in pencil that arranges all the shapes; assign a value to every shape with a lot of value contrast in a focal area. I use a soft 5 or 6b pencil so my darks are almost black. For drama use your darkest dark and your lightest light in or around your most important area and build out from there. The more important the relationship of one shape with an adjacent shape, increase the value contrast. The less important the relationship, keep the values closer together until you complete your ‘plan’. If you like it and it reads visually then use that plan to follow as you paint. This procedure frees you to concentrate on the ‘how’ of painting, handling paint, brush, water and paper. It most certainly ups the success rate.

Can the elements of Art: line, shape, texture, value, color and form within a space BECOME the subject? I think so. These paintings are the most difficult for me to resolve and at the same time so much fun to do. It is intuitive painting, but intuition based on almost 50 years of painting experience. I add paint, subtract paint (most of these paintings are executed on Yupo a plastic paper that makes the addition and especially the subtraction of paint very easy) and make an evaluation of the whole and go again. Multiple focal areas compete for attention, as other areas are made quiet, it is the ultimate balancing act. In the end I think that if the big shapes work I have license to entertain myself and the viewer (I hope!) with detail, innuendo and personal messages.

Acrylic! The “other” water media, along with gouache and transparent watercolor, they all mix with water. Acrylics once dry however are not again water-soluble. They also dry very fast and I’ve learned to take advantage of that feature. I work very fast when applying color to the largest shapes to take advantage of my limited working time. I call most of these works “Almost Plein Air”. I try to capture the feeling of working on site while working in the studio. If photographic references are used, I simplify by drawing compositional plans in my sketchbook. I then work from my sketches not the photograph. Combine the distilling of visual information via my sketchbook plans with a fast application of paint and the emotional impact of these works is: Almost Plein Air.