Below are 21 series of images that capture various stages in the painting process. To see videos of me painting, follow the links to my YouTube and Instagram sites.
Connections
In my teens I lived for seven years out in the country on ranch property where work was very much a part of life - demanded and expected. I was exposed to a lot of foundational concepts that have stuck with me: the pleasure to be found in making things, working with one's hands; the satisfaction at the end of a hard day in the sun digging post holes and mixing concrete; a certain pride in the sober and sustained labor involved in making a straight row of fence posts; a respect for the quality of a sound piece of lumber; the appreciation, even reverence for a well-made tool; a dawning awareness of an inner competence that could perhaps one day carry me forward in life. Indeed I did work as a builder from my 20's to my 40's.
The work I do now making art is very much informed by those early years, and the truths revealed then continue to guide me. Doing solid work in exchange for fair payment from a customer has always felt healthy and clean to me - almost elemental, like oxygen. I'm not much of a businessman, but I do feel proud of my work and very happy that others are enjoying it. That makes me feel part of a community, that the artwork somehow connects me to all the folks who have it on their walls.
Making a painting is also a building process. A good drawing and a strong underpainting are essential, like a foundation. High-quality materials are important in the construction of a painting or a building. A well-made house has to have parts in their proper proportion, and those parts have to be well-connected,a principle that can and ought to be applied to the making of an image as well.
I am certainly "crafting" my paintings, and I ask myself questions about structure when evaluating a painting, but the structure in this case is about strengthening the design. Is there a wide enough value range (darks and lights)? Is the distribution of those values interesting? Do the various shapes and masses feel like they are having a friendly dialogue? Is the color concept cohesive? Are there some little surprises - maybe an unexpected color or an edge that loses its definition somewhere? It’s a bit more subjective than checking for plumb and true, but in either case it’s about making something lasting and sound.
As a contractor I strove to provide a level of refinement and attention to detail for my customers that I would also have put into a home if I were building it for my own family. And though there is no final arbiter of artistic merit, I try to make work that will hold up under the dispassionate eye of an unknown art lover, maybe someone alive centuries from now, if all goes extremely well.
In my teens I lived for seven years out in the country on ranch property where work was very much a part of life - demanded and expected. I was exposed to a lot of foundational concepts that have stuck with me: the pleasure to be found in making things, working with one's hands; the satisfaction at the end of a hard day in the sun digging post holes and mixing concrete; a certain pride in the sober and sustained labor involved in making a straight row of fence posts; a respect for the quality of a sound piece of lumber; the appreciation, even reverence for a well-made tool; a dawning awareness of an inner competence that could perhaps one day carry me forward in life. Indeed I did work as a builder from my 20's to my 40's.
The work I do now making art is very much informed by those early years, and the truths revealed then continue to guide me. Doing solid work in exchange for fair payment from a customer has always felt healthy and clean to me - almost elemental, like oxygen. I'm not much of a businessman, but I do feel proud of my work and very happy that others are enjoying it. That makes me feel part of a community, that the artwork somehow connects me to all the folks who have it on their walls.
Making a painting is also a building process. A good drawing and a strong underpainting are essential, like a foundation. High-quality materials are important in the construction of a painting or a building. A well-made house has to have parts in their proper proportion, and those parts have to be well-connected,a principle that can and ought to be applied to the making of an image as well.
I am certainly "crafting" my paintings, and I ask myself questions about structure when evaluating a painting, but the structure in this case is about strengthening the design. Is there a wide enough value range (darks and lights)? Is the distribution of those values interesting? Do the various shapes and masses feel like they are having a friendly dialogue? Is the color concept cohesive? Are there some little surprises - maybe an unexpected color or an edge that loses its definition somewhere? It’s a bit more subjective than checking for plumb and true, but in either case it’s about making something lasting and sound.
As a contractor I strove to provide a level of refinement and attention to detail for my customers that I would also have put into a home if I were building it for my own family. And though there is no final arbiter of artistic merit, I try to make work that will hold up under the dispassionate eye of an unknown art lover, maybe someone alive centuries from now, if all goes extremely well.