"Black Mountain Fall" is acrylic on canvas, 36x60." This past October, some friends were kind enough to let me and the kids go stay in their beautiful home in Black Mountain, North Carolina. The colors of the autumn leaves and the grandiosity of the mountains were incredibly inspiring. I took pictures of the vista from their house and did a pour as soon as I returned to Raleigh.

After it dried, I applied some glazes to achieve the warmth I wanted. Then I sketched the silhouette of the mountains and trees with chalk. Chalk can be wiped off dry acrylic paint with a wet sponge, making it the perfect tool for designing a mask. I started with the exact mountainous horizon from my photos, but it didn't translate into a very interesting silhouette. Part of the aesthetic intrigue of mountains is usually the depth and layers in the ranges. So I ended up loosely basing my horizon on the photos but exaggerating it. 

When it was time to do the trees, again, at first I followed my photos and had the trees coming straight up from the bottom. And again, when flattened into a silhouette, this did not look right. It looked like the mountain line was just bumpy ground with trees coming up from it. So I modified my design to have the branches coming in from the sides and not touching the horizon. This gave me the expanse of space I wanted from the eye back to the horizon line.

The first mask I applied was a robin's egg blue, like the clear skies that graced us for part of our stay in Black Mountain.

While that made representational sense, it didn't feel right to me. It wasn't warm enough, and it felt very separate from the colors in the pour. I decided to change (drastically) to a warm muted gold that would speak to the pour. This brought the piece together, allowing the eye to follow the gold tones all the way around the composition. Because of this change of direction, I was able to leave a slight blue halo (outline) around the mask. This is a neat detail that really helps emphasize the shapes of the trees and the horizon line. 

This piece will hang in my friends' home in Black Mountain and will always remind me of the warmth and beauty I experience there.

"Sidewalk Magnolia Leaves" is acrylic on canvas, 36x36." This piece, like many of my recent works, is a pouring-and-mask painting. I guess it's just really where I want to be with my work right now. When I go for walks in my neighorhood, I pass under several giant magnolia trees. In the early summer, I started seeing these giant velvety leaves on the sidewalks in the most amazing range of golds and browns. I picked up a few one day and brought them home to use as color inspiration. I created a highly-textured pour using golds, greens, and browns, and sprayed alcohol to disrupt the surface. I chose a midnight blue for the mask to further push the warmth of the gold. 

I did something I've never done before with this painting. The dark gray-blue I used for my mask is by nature transparent (Payne's Gray), so I added some white to give it opacity. Transparent paints tend to be glossy which can create a glare and reveal brushstrokes, especially with dark colors. When I painted my mask in my studio, it was very flat and uniform. When I placed the painting on my mantel under spot lights, all the brushwork leapt out at me, and not in a good way! You could see how I'd painted around the shapes, not a good effect. This morning, while it was still dark out outside, I set the painting up on my easel with one strong spotlight to create a glare. I stood where I could see the brushwork in the dark mask, and I painted... with glare, basically. It was very interesting and not something I've ever done.

"Spring Maple" is 36x36" acrylic on canvas. It is another exploration of the pouring and mask technique. This piece was created specifically through a series of demonstration videos I produced from my home for employees at the company where I work. They can simply watch and enjoy my process or attempt it themselves as a creative outlet during this stressful time. I have one coworker who's since painted an entire series using this method... an artist is born! This was my first foray into instruction, and I truly enjoyed it. I hope to do another series early in the new year. This particular image was inspired by photos I took out on my walks of the riotous reds, golds, and greens in the new foliage of the neighborhood maple trees.

"Organic Silhouette in Blue, Magenta, and Gold" is acrylic on canvas, 30x24."  This is a personal commission.  My client requested a bright and dramatic pouring using those three colors.  I made sure she was okay with the wide range of secondary colors that could result from that combination.  She said go for it!

This pouring gave me unexpected results.  My intention was a "wet-into-wet" approach, or watered-down paints on a watered-down surface.  However, two factors took the painting in a different direction that day.  First, it was cold in my garage where I was doing this.  Second, the way that particular canvas was prepared by the manufacturer, it wasn't absorbing the water well.  The paint moved around on the canvas in tight rivulets with occasional bursts of feathering and blending.  I sprayed it with water to encourage the pigment to spread in a splattered fashion.  Then, as with all pourings, I had to walk away and come back the next morning! 

My next step was to start carving out my organic shape using a mask of neutral gray paint.  I let the shape of the pour guide me as I cut away around it. 

I then began experimenting with glazes, or thin layers of transparent paint, to rein the colors in.  I chose to eliminate the white because it was detracting from the soft glow of the pigments.  You may also notice the canvas has rotated 180 degrees at this point.  I try to turn abstract pieces regularly while working on them.  Changing the perspective helps me design and problem-solve.  The final orientation ended up being vertical because, well, it just felt right to me.  I also changed the background color to a warm brown instead of gray.

"Poplar Tulip" is 36x36," acrylic on canvas.  This is the first piece I've completed during the current stay-at-home conditions.  After we became locked down, I quickly got into the much-needed habit of going for daily walks in my neighborhood.  I find I'm endlessly inspired by the beauty of nature and the incredible spring weather we've had this year.  On one of my walks, I kept seeing poplar tulips on the ground.

I know these are commonplace here, but I think the bright warm green and orange in them is remarkable.  I decided I would attempt to capture those colors in a pouring.  This would also be a chance to test-drive the painting corner I had cleaned out in my garage.  I can't do pourings in my home studio because they are extremely messy; that space is in the middle of my house and shared with my kids.  I prepared my paints and canvas.

Pourings are very much a hurry-up-and-wait process.  I laid down the initial pour, then had to force myself to walk away.  I've been asked why I don't use a blow dryer to accelerate the drying process.  While that works for some types of painting, I don't like how the air pressure from the dryer pushes the paint around.  It fights with the slow evolution driven by the water's motion.  Here was the initial pour, still very wet.

Here is how it dried... quite different!  The piece has been rotated 180 degrees between these two images.

From here, I used my original inspiration photo to carve out my poplar shapes using a light sky blue mask.  I rotated it many times while working on it.  This piece brings me joy because it conveys the feeling I get when I look up at my poplar trees on a sunny, warm day and see them full of those colorful tulips.

"Iris" is acrylic on canvas, 48x60."  This was a spontaneous piece.  In December, I had made a flower arrangement for my kitchen using white calla lilies, purple alstroemeria, and a cobalt blue glass vase.  The drama and rich color combination inspired me, and I came into work simply having to capture it somehow.  Here is a photo of the arrangement.

I mixed up my colors based on the flower arrangement.  I find with pours, the more limited the palette the better.  Too many different colors will fight and ultimately become muddy.

I laid down the pour, which initially looked like this.  I knew it might change a lot through the drying process, and I would have to wait until the next day to see what I really had to work with.

This is what it looked like the next day, not too different from how it began.

I had established color.  The next step was to create the botanical shapes.  I really enjoy rendering by using masks to create negative shapes (the spaces between objects).  I used my original photograph of the flower arrangement to guide me as I cut in those shapes.  Carefully the piece started to take on its leaves, stems, and petals.  For the mask, I chose a range of soft greens.  I know there were no irises in the inspirational arrangement, but for me, the painting itself took on the qualities of an iris.

"Dancing Stones I & II" are acrylic on paper, 26x40" each.  These pieces evolved slowly on the back burner in my studio.  Almost two years ago, I did a big pouring on loose canvas on my studio floor.  The paint soaked through and created a mess.  There were some interesting shapes and colors happening in that mess, so I grabbed a couple of large sheets of watercolor paper and laid them down to absorb the paint.  Then I set them aside to dry, not really concerned with the results at that point.  Every now and then, when I needed to get my hands into something, I'd pull out these papers and play, pouring and splattering paint, gradually building up what became a very active and multi-layered surface.

    

When we needed a large pair of paintings for a certain location, I decided it was time to tame these into finished works.  I used glazes (thin, transparent applications of paint) to create the rounded shapes.  To push depth, I added shadows to make the shapes appear to overlap.  I continued to build back levels on levels of these floating pebbles.  The largest, lightest shapes sit at the back and anchor the tumbling composition.  Those were created by carving in negative shapes (the spaces between) with a smooth, light gray mask.  I wanted the gray to be clean and quiet to contrast with and accentuate the textures in the stones.  

 

"Fluidity I & II" are acrylic on canvas, 36x60" each.  These works were created in late 2019 for a specific location, so I was asked for a particular size and palette.  The designer requested fresh, dynamic, and abstract content.  I've been experimenting with the pouring technique lately and wanted to go in that direction.  This is what you'd call a "wet into wet" approach.  The substrate (canvas, in this case) has been saturated with water, and the paints applied have been mixed with water.  

You may notice some edges are soft and feathered, while others are hard.  That happens because the water is evaporating at varying rates all over the canvas as the paints are being poured.  It's one of the unpredictable and chaotic aspects of water media I really love!  As the artist, I can try to guide the painting and manipulate the results, but really the water is in charge. These were done in two stages.  The first application was a golden green and range of blues.  Once that dried (about 24 hours), I added a layer of violet.  The lighter rounded shapes were created using an alcohol resist.  Alcohol disrupts most types of acrylic paint if the paint is still wet enough.  You can apply it in a variety of ways.  Here I poured little pools to see what would happen.

The walls where these paintings will live are a light gray, so I left the background white for contrast.      

"Fall Blaze" is 36x36", acrylic on canvas.  Every year I try to channel my awe at the fall foliage in Raleigh, North Carolina, into a painting.  Since I've been experimenting with pouring lately, this is the shape my inspiration took this time.  I applied the colors yesterday morning, then starting carving out the resulting burgeoning form in the afternoon after the pour had settled and dried.  Even though the palette is autumn-inspired, the image itself is reminiscent of a lush petal of an iris or orchid.  I wanted to push the warm and brilliance of the color so I framed it in a soft, cool, muted green, similar to that of the restful pine trees that surround the flashy hardwoods.  Wishing everyone a wonderful Thanksgiving!

"Essence of a Flower" is 18x24", watercolor on paper.  I produced this piece as a practice exercise while attending a recent workshop with artist Sterling Edwards.  The topic of the class was Big Brush Floral Paintings in Watercolor.  Watercolor is my least comfortable medium.  I am an admirer of Sterling's loose and effortless rendering of a wide range of subject matter, how he manages to have one foot in representation and the other in abstraction.  The result can be an intriguing suggestion of content that lures the viewer in.  These pieces are created swiftly.  There is no laboring.  It either works or it doesn't. 

First you lay in a wash, being sure to preserve the precious white of the paper.  With watercolor, your white comes from the paper.  Once you cover it, it's gone.  You must work quickly because with every second your paper is drying.  Once the wash is down and dry, you begin selectively defining, implying your subject by carving out negative shapes (spaces between) and adding in positive shapes.  A little goes a long way.  After I completed my initial wash, which was successful, I hit a wall of fear.  What if I started rendering my flowers and I put a shape where I didn't want it?  Or I went too far and lost what I wanted to leave unsaid?  But, I dove in.  There are things I can pick apart about this result but overall I like it.  It's loose and playful and most definitely some kind of flower but which kind is up to you. 

These "Butterfly Effect" pieces are 22x30" each, acrylic on paper.  The series was a spontaneous use of leftover pouring paint from another project.  I was about to wash the extra paint out of the cups and I decided instead to see what would happen if I poured them onto dry paper.  The first piece started as a pool of very wet paint.  I carefully began lifting and tilting the paper to send the paint rolling in different directions.  The control I had over the paint was minimal at best.  Then, as with any pouring piece, I simply had to wait until the next day and see.  The blues and violet were the initial layer.  After those dried, I wanted to preserve the clean simplicity of the design but add depth so I brought in the complimentary gold tone.  I was so intrigued by the resulting shapes, I wanted to emphasize those against the white.  I grabbed a black acrylic marker and started outlining the silhouette of the pouring, leaving a small gap, well, just because.  I love it when paintings happen and I have no idea they are coming or where they came from.  These were really fun and freeing.  As is often the case, the truly lively, fresh work sneaks up on me when I'm focusing on other things. 

Searching and Discovery

I'm a little late posting this very large project that was designed and completed in 2018.  "Searching" and "Discovery" are two monumental triptychs, each 12' high by 6' wide (consisting of 3 4'x6' panels).   

Inspired by a couple of earlier (smaller) works created with a similar method, I started with the free and random application of long arcing lines using charcoal pencil.  In order to get a smooth curve created by the continuous motion of my arm, I had to begin with these sideways (and my feet on the floor).  Else, I'd have to use a lift or a ladder to get lines going vertically and that would not result in a fluid mark. 

The panels were then installed on the shop walls where I could start painting them using a scissor lift.  My design was mostly created at my computer using visual software.  I figured out pretty quickly I was not going to be able to make decisions while in front of the paintings.  They were too big and I was too close to them and off the ground.  I couldn't see them in their entirety unless I dropped the lift, climbed down, and backed many feet away.  Thus, I worked out my game plan on paper before I started painting.  I continued this approach throughout the process as my design evolved. 

Using acrylic paint on birch wood panels, I began carving in larger shapes using different values of blue.  The blue and red palette was guided by the interior design of the placement environment. 

 

Then came time to start working in the warm red elements.

 

At some point I decided the panels were feeling too solid so I broke them up using the wall color (a cool white).

At the last, I integrated more grays to create a final layer of depth.  The result of this following-the-lines approach was like a mosaic.  I titled these pieces "Searching" and "Discovery" because the creative process was centered on bringing forth the design I wanted from within a field of existing lines.  The project took a couple of months, all told... here are the works installed. 





Umstead Mystery

"Umstead Mystery, 2019" is a revisit to an older abstract painting that has evolved through the years.  I originally painted it in 2005 and it went to live in our Middleton, MA, office for over a decade.  When that office closed, it came back to me and I felt it needed to be something else.  I changed it to a vertical orientation and added more depth to the surface but left it entirely abstract at that time (2016).  It has not been placed since then so I recently pulled it from our bins and spent some time with it.  I decided by adding minimal content and leaving much of it undefined, it could become a subtle and mysterious landscape.  The nearby Umstead Park lends me endless inspiration with its natural scenes full of dappled light, winding paths and creeks, and warm textural foliage.

Seasonal Colors

"Seasonal Colors I & II" are 30x24" each, acrylic on canvas.  They were created first by filling each canvas with loose gestural brushwork edge to edge.  Then the tree shapes were carved out using negatives shapes (spaces between) in simplified muted complimentary colors meant to push the richness of the oranges and greens.  The flat background creates quiet contrast with the energy within the tree forms.  I enjoy the dichotomy of the two images together, one warm against cool and the other cool against warm.  They almost look like they are having a lively and secret conversation.  I started these some time ago but have only recently revisited and completed them. 

 

 

"Through the Looking Glass I & II" are 15x15" multimedia pourings on gatorboard which have been mounted to 24x18" birch panels.  These were part of the pouring sessions we did last year.  They were both handled similarly.  The paint was applied liberally, then I then dragged a popsicle stick through the layers.  The white one was under-painted in a bright red so the red you see is revealed, not added.  It was a fascinating process and I find the results intricate and amusing and unlike anything I've done before.  Presenting them against the wood panels to me adds dimension and a pleasant combination of materials. 

"Blue Windows" is 48x36", acrylic on canvas.  The source material was a photograph I took in Charleston back in 2000.  I've always been intrigued by the bizarre angles and perspective in it.  I rarely draw before painting but I made an exception in this case because it was so important to get the angles right.  Even though they match the photo, the effect still feels somewhat warped, which would usually bother me but in this case doesn't.  It's been pointed out to me this painting is much tighter than my usual work (minus the foliage, of course).  I finished this in December but am just now catching up on my cataloguing.  Happy New Year! 

"Charleston Memory" is pastel on sanded paper, 27x19".  This started out as a literal portrayal of a scene I photographed on a trip to Charleston, a familiar and lovely sun-soaked plaza.  It was pretty enough but not very interesting to me.  I have never experimented with painting pastels with water on a brush so I decided to see what would happen.  There was a good chance it would lift the pastel and the sand off the paper and be toast.  Surprisingly, the water smoothly mixed with the chalk and with minimal application did not disrupt the paper.  The scene took on a dreamlike quality.  I like how the lines sort of walk through it.

"Push and Pull" is acrylic on wood, quite large at 45x96".  This piece was requested for a large open work space after I completed my recent work, "Citrus."  The layering of circles in this technique builds up a very dynamic surface.  While there's a great deal of energy and movement, keeping the palette soft and the grid parallel to the frame lends stability and quietness.  I enjoyed how differently the paint interacted with the wood verses canvas.  It's difficult to see here but the texture created by the repeated application and removal of paint is interesting up close. 

"Jasper I & II" are acrylic on panel, 14x15" each.  These were part of my recent pouring experiments.  The highly organic outcome you tend to get with pouring can feel both internally and externally familiar.  These reminded me of one of my favorite minerals, jasper. 

"Citrus" is 36x48", acrylic on canvas.  The under-painting was scraped with a tool meant for creating faux wood effects in scenery.  The resulting grooves made for a fun foundation and gave the surface interest.  My loose goal with this one was just more experimentation with the circular template I found in the shop dumpster.  :)  I love the depth the overlays create, both with the positive circular shapes and the negative diamond shapes in-between.  This piece has a lot of pleasing movement and color for me.