Drying time...days!

Work in Progress.

I am waiting for these canvas to dry, so I can apply the next layer without disrupting, what is soon to be underneath. There are many techniques I have found over the years to build depth and 'patience' is definitely one of them! It helps that I usually have 4-6 canvas on the go at anytime, so I can work on 1 or 2 each day while the others dry.

The longer you can leave between layers, the drier and more stable the color you have applied. Additional coats change layers. Each layer a dimension of 'push and pull' in itself and then, how it relates to the existing layers... and on and on.....

Sometimes, I'll deliberately paint a second coat before the first is dry, so as to watch the interaction and the paint merge or blend. And, I love to see what effect gravity has over the paint, texture and fiber, pulling waves of color in a direction, movement captured in paint. That's what painting is to me, a visual record of the dialogue, between me, the canvas and my paints!

These both began as very light works but I have been exploring the 'shadow self' and it seems that is translating onto the canvas. There is still much light to be found among the shadows.

View in progress video

Once again, I'm repeating techniques in new ways. These works have a touch of my early 'Deep End' Series, with their Ultramarine glazing but painted in area's, not over the whole. There is a patchwork relationship in the overlapping layers and the original 'Deep End' pulp fiber, in the textured ground in both paintings. I think the next coat or two will consist of a little pigment (color undecided) and glaze. The above are works in progress still, but in the final stages, or so it feels right now. I haven't heard 'Step away from the canvas!' -yet.

Today is ANZAC Day in Australia...'Lest we Forget I' and 'Lest we Forget II' from my ANZAC Series.

April 25th is a National Holiday in Australia, ANZAC Day.We have a dawn service and a march through the cities, with a minutes silence in memory of the Anzac soldiers and their bravery in Gallipoli during WWI. In 2001 I painted my first painting in this series only to revisit again in 2013. The first painting was created in my lounge room while watching the Anzac Parade on TV. I felt a deep connection to the stories being shared and they translated on to the canvas I was working on at the time. I didn't set out to paint a commemorative painting, it just happened. My palette consisted of colors that represent the beach, the blood shed and the bravery in Khaki's, also the light. As with a lot of my work, crosses found their way in to the picture plane. In this painting they are more deliberate. Over the years they have become more gestural and guided by the hand. Thank you to all the soldiers who risked or gave their lives for our freedom. You are not forgotten.

'Lest we Forget I' 24" x36" Oil on Canvas 2001 (Not for Sale)

In 2013 I revisited with 'Lest we Forget II' I hope at some stage to continue this series.

'Lest we Forget II' 36" x 48" Oil on Canvas 2013

'Australian Gold' is on her way to Miami!

I am pleased to say 'Australian Gold' has found her way to Miami, Florida.

I adore the lady who has purchased it. She has a couple of my works now and I can see a thread in this piece adding well to her collection. Her previous pieces that hold the energy of risk and reward. Each piece was a new style emerging within it's original series. An offshoot in a new direction. As with this one.

'Australian Gold' was born from finger painting and finished with a palette knife. The palette pushed and pulled and markings came and went. Always the reveal and conceal. This painting is step further along the palette knife path, than 'The Fog Series'. It doesn't stop at gestures and ephemeral markings. It layers and builds texture in places leaving peek-a-boo windows (a recurring theme in my painting) of the process intact, as a visual record of how each layer adds to the whole. . I added two final layers after I thought she was complete. The urge just comes and needs to be expressed, always at the risk of losing what is already apparent. This time in Zinc White and Australian Gold. I am glad I did. Below is the photo log of the various stages of her making. I don't always photograph each stage but in this case, I really wanted to. I hope you enjoy seeing the process. I wish I could keep them all.

'Australian Gold' (1st stage)

'Australian Gold' (2nd stage)

'Australian Gold' (3rd stage)

In a sense I can, vibrationally they all still exist as one, 'Australian Gold'

'Dancing Girl'

I love the moment of recognition that something is just meant to be.I had a moment like this recently when a client contacted me in regard to buying a painting for a mutual friend for her birthday. This particular painting was made as a diptych (two paintings that read together as a pair) and I had it hanging in my home for years. I didn't want to sell it as I had planned to do a series of work based on this diptych and frankly it is much easier to have the work in front of you to recreate the same feeling. A photo of the work has never given me the energy connect in the same way.

'Dancing Girl'

A couple of years ago a friend had asked to purchase it and I declined. It felt awful to say no, especially as she really did seem to have a special connect with the work but I also knew from past experience I shouldn't sell what I wasn't ready to let go yet. Recently, our mutual friend contacted me and asked if it was for sale. It wasn't until I heard who it was for. I couldn't deny that this painting must be destined to belong to this person. So, I agreed and sent it interstate to it's new home. I love the fact that 'Dancing Girl' has her new home and will be treasured by her new family. I also love the fact that a mutual friend got to buy this as a gift for her long time friend. It is such a special gift to give....artwork that connects someone to a deeper part of themselves....from one friend to another. I feel blessed to be part of this transaction and although I haven't managed to create the series I have wanted to yet, I am sure when the time is right, I will. This chain of giving was too good to miss out on. The good feeling of this coming together nourishes all! Cheers to all the Dancing girls!

'Secret's of The Fog' triptych has landed in it's forever home!

'Secrets of The Fog' triptych Oil and pastel on canvas 16" x 40" (x3) 2015

'Secrets of The Fog' triptych Oil and pastel on canvas 16" x 40" (X3)

'Secrets of The Fog' triptych Oil and pastel on canvas 16" x 40" (x3)

I am pleased to announce 'Secrets of The Fog' triptych has arrived safely to it's new home in Dallas, Texas! I was holding my breath waiting for confirmation, as Dallas has been in another Ice Storm and I hoped delivery would be successful and safe for all. There is nothing as rewarding as a client who sends a message of 'loving the paintings even more in person' than online. In honesty, it is a relief but also a moment of deep sharing of yourself with another.

When someone resonates with a work you have made, it is very personal. It is a big part of who you are as an artist to create and there is naturally a bond with your work but when someone else has a connection to it also and you can see how it effects them, it validates the energy that is actually housed inside the work, the energy you send out in the world as an artist. So wonderful when someone is deeply touched and appreciates the feeling it awakens in them. I am not adverse to people buying art to match their furnishings, I know some artists hate that but I have no judgement on why someone buys a work and to be honest I feel it belongs with them for the same reason as someone who buys a work because it speaks directly to their core but maybe they are just less conscious of the deeper connect.

I am sure the paintings do their job (energetically) regardless but when someone really 'gets it' and feels their heart flutter , it is amazing, a real high- only matched by the feeling in the studio when after weeks or sometimes even months, a painting finally comes together and all the layers make sense and you know it is complete! I have enjoyed every minute of making this triptych and also the process of getting to know my new client. I am grateful too for her patience while I had them included in the photo shoot, delaying the posting a couple of weeks. Imagine my surprise to find out I was sending the paintings to an address in the very street I lived in last year and yet had not met this lovely person. We lived only doors away from one another!

I am so pleased we have now 'met' and look forward to our new friendship growing and I'm thrilled this work is now living in a home where she will be cherished!

Photographing the paintings professionally!

I had the best time with photographer Terry Schmidbauer today when he came to shoot 30 of my most recent paintings to include on the website.

It makes such a difference to have the correct lighting, color balance, white balance and a studio setting to shoot the work. I know many artists shot their own, and lord knows I have tried but no mater what time of day and where the sun is placed in the sky, there is always a reflection somewhere due to the high level of glazing in my work.

The studio environment and Terry's professional eye means I now have images of the work which manage to capture the depth in the many layers of color. Most paintings have between 15-20 layers, some more.

I will be loading these images on the website very soon but meanwhile I thought I would share the candid shot Terry mailed me of when he asked me to hold the color balance card for him. I had a great morning Terry.

Thanks for fitting us into your busy schedule and for the great photographs you took!

Spring is on it's way...

It's been very warm of late (72F/22C) and the energy has changed.There is a lightness coming back in, but it is delicate and not full strength yet. I've noticed people are a little more relaxed lately too. It helps not having to run errands in the rain.

This mood is reflecting in my paintings at present. I have two 36" x 48" canvases on the go and they are very light in nature and in color. The palette is pastel and White's and although there is still the element of calligraphy with the pastel mark makings from the 'Fog Series', they are smaller and fuller. They almost make me feel like plants in Spring time, as they pop through the ground and you just catch a glimpse of their furled up selves. These little markings may be small but packed with energy. They feel like they are ready to blossom and bloom. Maybe I will title them so. Below, are two small photo's of detail from the larger works.

I look forward to sharing the photographs of the final paintings with you soon. Meanwhile, enjoy the warmer weather and fecund energy.

The Sun is out again...

The Fog lingers, but the Sun is present and warms quickly, the morning.CA Winter!

I have been busy in the studio on a daily basis immersed in shades of White. I'm still producing further works within the 'Fog Series'. I am working on a couple of 36" x 48" A couple of new techniques are being incorporated into these paintings. They have elements of the 'Fog series' but are branching out.

All series are like a 'stretching' to the next.

That's where I see the thread best in my work. When the techniques or palettes change a little and a new direction is born. It is fun to watch.

I am still using a palette knife but also playing with rags right now. Rubbing paint and dabbing, along side troweling with the knife, even finger painting!

There's a lot of freedom in the act of changing your tools now and again to push you into another way to express.

Naturally, as you use the tool differently, you are automatically 'open' to trying a new way of working. Over time, I have learnt how to trowel a transparent marking over an area as easily as spread a thick one. You do get to know your tools so, by changing it up sometimes, you give yourself a little extra creative license and a little learning room because as nearly all artists will tell you ; "It's often the 'mistakes' that turn out the best!"

The rains....

It's raining! The sound on the roof of the studio is very conducive to creativity. There is movement in the air and the rain is washing away the dust of drought. The color outdoors is so vibrant and renewing. I feel inspired...

'It's Raining!

Fog

Sometimes you see clearer through a fog.You know the way 'black and white' can narrow things down, simplifying the hues in between and creating a clean cut shape of things. You might miss a few details but sometimes they are mere distraction. A gem shines brightly, you'll know it. I have been feeling my way through a fog of late. Literally and not so literally. Physically (Winter in a Valley) and emotionally (just putting down some roots) as always, the footprint of 'life' has been showing up in my paintings.

The Fog

My palette is quieter than late 2014's high energy, bold works (a time of great momentum and energy in daily life during this period) and the techniques have been based around a palette knife and not a brush. (Much easier for cleaning...bonus!)

Palette Knife

I have felt lighter in spirit, so whites were added. Zinc and Titanium, at different times, creating different layers of warmth and cold. I was feeling a little of that energy wise too. I was on or I was off. High energy or incubation. Those months were full of change, punctuated with adaption and chance. It fueled my creativity. I took risks with my overpainting in these works. For many layers some of the 'bits' didn't seem right but I didn't paint over them and now, some many layers more, it all reads together, as though that was always there just waiting to be discovered.

Detail of texture and overpainting.

A sculptural quality in my hands. Guided to remove or add in trust of what is building on the canvas. Feeling your way, noticing what beckons you to mark or stain or wipe away in some fashion. I'm always learning something. I've been 'feeling my way' through the Valley too. It gets mighty thick some mornings. Romantic but also in a way, 'eery', it's denser than I would have thought and the world around here is kinda damp right now. Which is good and nature is green as a result but it does change what you can actually see! It is also quite instinctive to hibernate.

A sweet young critic of mine recently commented this series represented the fog. I have to admit, it does and in so many ways. I painted them from the onset, with a 'do what you want to do for yourself' feeling and I did what I wanted to do, just because I wanted to do it just to please myself, no other agenda or theme for a show. It worked, they do please me. The more I digested of the world around me, the more I shared those feelings with the canvas in front of me. I think they read beautifully together. The colors reflect a lighter heart.

'Beauty in the fog' 24" x 36" Oil and pastel on canvas

'The fog is lifting' 24" x 36" Oil and pastel on canvas

The calligraphic movement is coming back in my wrist, making marks  of dance along the way, some staying visible, others  highlighted with further applications of white paint with a palette knife. Revealing and concealing over time. I worked through my emotions and saw  reflected exactly where I needed to stretch and grow. It's not always comfortable and it's not always pretty, but it sure is always worth it. The paintings are like my diary. I see them chronologically capturing the emotion of the period of time in which they were created. The series, 'Fog' was a time of sitting still and reflecting, being open and resisting judgement where possible and lots of letting go. I didn't always succeed but I feel I gave it a good shot. There is still at least one more canvas yet to be completed in the series Fog. There may be more.

2015- Happy New Year!

This is the perfect time to introduce a new style of sharing. I have been soul searching for a better feeling connect with writing my blog and feel it is time to share more of myself in the process. In the past I have tried to keep the blog about just the process of making the art or what is happening in terms of showing it but something always felt lacking. I didn't really think people would want to know about me as much as my work. Turns out I am wrong. I have felt some form of vulnerability in exposing more of myself and frankly didn't know that it would be of any interest but after conversations with collectors over the past couple of weeks, I have realized it was the missing element for me and perhaps my audience...I love this type of opportunity for growth and hope you will like it too.

A few months ago, I began filming my sessions in the studio with a time lapse camera. I put this off for a long time as I thought perhaps it would put me off getting into the flow and effect my work but I was wrong. In truth after I turned it on and began working, I completely forgot about the camera. The hour or two sessions are condensed into 20-30 second video's...time is precious and probably only painter's love watching paint dry. (I must admit it is one of my favorite things, to watch as gravity effects different area's of paint on the canvas and magic takes place in front of my eyes, I may make a slower video at some point to share these moments too though as they are delicious to witness) I hope you enjoy seeing the paintings come to life in these clips as I do when they are flowing through me.

IMG_4425 The feedback I received from sharing this footage is that a lot of people were surprised at how physical painting can be. Stretching up and down to stroke a canvas and running between palette and canvas and even multiple canvases in one session. Of course every artist works in their own way and space requirement is dependent on the size of canvas you are working on but I have never worked on a tabletop, always an easel of a canvas flat on the floor. I love having to move around the canvas in order to reach different parts of it and it allows different perspectives as you move. I am working on these 3 canvases at present. My new work for the beginning of 2015. It is lighter in palette and combines a number of techniques I have used in paintings preceding these but not usually all together like this. I am loving exploring the outcomes. Here is another video from October...I'm heading back into the studio now! IMG_3823

'The Beat Goes On' now hanging at Jennifer Perlmutter Gallery!

This is the last week to see this work hanging @ Jennifer Perlmutter Gallery in Lafayette CA These paintings went through many 'finished' phases but they kept drawing me in for more layering until the final glazes of UltraMarine and Alizarin Crimson went down! I love the transparency in these paintings. The layers of color can be read through one another with a strong visual history of mark making below. They continue the theme I have been working in for a while, layers that build a fabric of identity. Like a patchwork quilt that slowly comes together, so do these works, layer by layer often only making sense to me in the final layers that unite. The title was born from the song by Sonny and Cher 'The Beat Goes On' as it played over in my head as I worked. Apt as this diptych kept calling for more...la de da de de, la de da de da.

'Fall Forward'

'Fall Forward' Show @ Jennifer Perlmutter Gallery Lafayette. CA

The show was about taking leaps, trusting process and moving forward. I feel it met that on so many levels; from Jennifer's curation of 6 Bay Area artists working in different mediums, to the idea that each of the artists is also taking leaps, trusting process and moving forward in their art.

http://jenniferperlmuttergallery.com/2014/10/fall-forward-taking-leaps-trusting-process-moving-forward/

I think the show was perfectly titled  'Fall Forward'. It takes courage to share your work. Sharing helps an artist identify themselves with their work on a level that can be taken for granted everyday in the studio, usually alone. It's a moment to stop and assess, enquire and address what one is doing and why.

Real engagement with artwork requires courage, looking with an open mind and a receptivity to how it makes you feel. Art is a language not spoken with words. It is color and lyrical brush strokes that speak in painting. Vibration that moves you, opens you to feeling something. It is a beautiful moment when viewer and painting find themselves a match.

It's been wonderful to be included. I've met some  awesomely  talented people and couldn't have asked for a better welcome to the neighborhood! We toasted the night with 'New Age' -effervescent wine with lime over ice! Delicious!

Here are some pics from the opening reception:

@'Fall Forward'

10351335_750619925008535_1603258272732996069_n

10471431_750620081675186_7606782320020651219_n

10606021_750620295008498_5522769601597447600_n

10349209_750620015008526_6214196671371076169_n

'New Age' Sparkling Wine -over Lime and Ice.

'Fall Forward' Group Show

I am pleased to announce I have been invited to participate in the 'Fall Forward' group show @ the Jennifer Perlmutter Gallery here in the East Bay. The show opens on Thursday the 6th of November 2014 Jennifer Perlmutter Gallery 6.30-8.30pm- reception 3620 Mt Diablo Blvd, Lafayette CA (925) 284 1485

http://www.jenniferperlmuttergallery.com

The Exhibit features 6 East Bay artists presenting a variety of medium. Artists: Jeffrey Sully- Sculpture Lisa Carroll- Paper Allen Wittert- Acrylic Jon Larsen- Pastel Jennifer Perlmutter- Mixed Media and myself, Deborah Rhee- Oil

It's interesting to note the draw different mediums have on artists. How is it we are drawn to a particular form of expression? How do our materials convey a deeper understanding of our own personalities and points of view?

I have always worked in Oil- Oil and layers of Glaze. There is something that brings to mind the history of painting when using these materials that makes me feel part of something larger than myself. I love their buttery texture, the fact their longer drying time affords me the luxury of returning to rework an area over many times, adding and subtracting until I am happy with the result. I delight in playing with the consistency by adding glazing mediums of various viscosity and watching in turn how that affects the outcome of the application, in itself and how it affects already existing layers of color. Building layers of transparency and opacity, creating world to explore in what I see presenting on the canvas. I consider my work a true collaboration with my materials. The techniques I use bring a certain element of surprise as I work, with gravity playing an important part in the finished product. Where and how my drips run or collide and where washes pool and rivulet, all adding to the scape building before my eyes. Honestly, I get lost looking at the smaller detail of these actions. It's mesmerizing to me, like cloud gazing. I lose myself. Time disappears. A blue wash will run over a section of yellow already applied and a small hint of green will appear. There is an innocence in my participation. Guided by intuition and discovery rather than following a preconceived plan of something I am trying to create. I let the materials show me what we are creating together.

This show of mixed mediums has made me consider more deeply my choice of material. What exactly my choice of material says about me is not yet clear but I am happy to be entertaining the question.

I look forward to learning more about the other 5 artists contributing to 'Fall Forward' and the story behind their choice of expression. Hope to see you at the show!

settling in as the paint flows....

Finally after a number of weeks settling in to a new neighborhood and getting comfortable with a new school routine for my youngest, I am back in the studio doing what I love. It has been a long Summer of change and although it's funny to admit, but I was wary of picking up my brush after such a long absence, fearing the ability to paint may have left me.

I suppose it is something creatives share, a little doubt creeps in here and there but I had not had such a long hiatus before and almost felt as though my work may have felt abandoned in some way and maybe punish me for leaving....I am sure there is some long psychoanalysis that could link that to some Freudian thought but in truth creating is a muscle of sorts...it needs to be flexed to retain it's strength. I know drawing is like that, when I drew nightly, I could draw quite well but after a long period of not drawing I can no longer say that, it isn't true. With much gratitude, I can say it is not the case with painting, at least not for me. It came flooding back in the same fashion it always has. How welcome a feeling too!

I have decided to create a new body of work that builds on the pieces I was still working on in Dallas before we left. I did the same when we moved from Melbourne, Australia to Dallas some 4 years ago. I left little windows in the new works to show the journey from the original start point I had begun in Australia. I felt they were my bridging works. Bridging old to new, familiar to exploring. The works spoke of this too. I had been painting in veils of color, almost a wash and then worked over those paintings in a highly texturized almost sculpting fashion.

So, as my surroundings changed so did my technique and the way in which I was working. I am yet to see the full development of what changes will appear on canvas as a result of the changes I have made in my life recently but I like the idea of continuing the unfinished canvases again. It's quite cathartic to 'bring them' into the new and yet honor the foundations of how they began. A subtle integration of past and present. Much like the process one undergoes when moving to a new place to live. You are still the same person but there are subtle changes and a lot to digest and assimilate.

I love that my work can provide me a haven for playing with these thoughts and come to terms with all that is while creating a painting that speaks to me of the process I am undergoing. I am sure the colors of the landscape and the feel of the people I am meeting all effect the choices made in the studio as much as my internal reflections. I am very excited to be back at work, letting the brush sweep across the canvas and the colors melt into one another to show me something new. I have rediscovered a wrist based action which comes across as almost a language of sorts. I have enjoyed that movement for many years, not in all my work but often present even if sometimes deeply overpainted.

One of the new developments is the desire to let that language speak again and perhaps more loudly. My wrist enjoys the fast and flickering action on the canvas, not much thought but a lot of flow. I shall continue incorporating this technique for as long as it feels good to do so.

My Studio is being housed in the garage for now, with plans to build a dedicated space once we are able. The garage has it's benefits. I am not worried about making a mess, which is freeing and the lighting is good, although not natural lighting but canned on tracking, so I can highlight a point to paint if I wish. In truth, I still mainly paint in the evening anyway, so my fantasy of natural lighting in the studio is a bit ahead of me actually working in the hours I would have light available. I do think I will be painting more in daylight hours as time goes on as i no longer need to wait until the children are sleeping, which is where my night time practice originated. Still, habits die hard and it is so still and quiet at night. There is something very conducive to creativity in those hours.

Anyway, it has been some time since I have updated my journey and thought it time to share what has been going on...we have begun...there are many layers down on a number of different sized works and I will post them as I complete them with their stories. Meanwhile, here is a peek at the Studio (garage) and my temporary set up! It feels good to be in California!

'I'm back'

I haven't posted in a while due to our families move across state from Dallas, Texas to the Bay Area in CA. Life has held a frantic pace with wrapping up life as knew it and heading off to an unknown to me but reputedly loved by all who have been there...San Francisco, California.

So far, so good, although It hasn't been without it's challenges, arriving after a 6 day, cross country trip across 5 States of America with loaded car and small child. All my art supplies packed in a truck, headed towards our new home with all our treasure's, just hours ahead of our own departure. I often looked, on the days we travelled, at the names on the sides of the 1,000's of long distance moving trucks we passed on our journey wondering; was it ours?

I don't like forgoing my studio time, especially for long periods as involved in a move, where packing up the studio, then transporting and in this case, again waiting 3 months to access the materials, means making do with other artistic pursuits to quench my thirst for paint and brush.

I paint on a larger scale that requires some space to move and slosh paint around without too much mindfulness. A furnished rental is not the place to play with messy paint. I'll be honest, with preparing a house for sale and packing up all your belongings to researching your new surrounds for homes beginning with good school districts, there isn't a lot of time for work, moving like this is a full time job.

Today, i couldn't take the lack of my mediums. I have been expressing my creativity in other ways of late but still, the need to paint bubbles up daily and I have to tell myself "soon". Well, we have been here a total of 3 and a bit weeks and 'soon' won't cut it i couln't wait for my studio to begin working.

I have purchased a mini kit of everything i need to express until i have my new studio. Thank you to my husband for noticing the 'Dick Blick' out of the corner of his eye in Berkeley at 5.45pm on a Sunday, when they close at 6pm and thank you 'Dick Blicks' for your 20% sale I wasn't expecting!

I am now at the kitchen table working on 10"X8"s. It feels good to be back!

'Friendship'

 

This is one of my recent works in a smaller scale that was created as part of a triptych to celebrate friendship. In my triptych 'Deeper', I stayed within the family of Blue's, wanting to create depth without distraction. This was my next adventure and I wanted to explore multiple colors and textures in a small scale work. I used many of the different techniques I use in my larger scale work to see if they would translate. I feel they did. I love the energy and warmth in this work. It speaks of friendship and the many layers that contribute to it's fabric. Friendships are often complex and simple at the same time. It is wonderful when they reach a maturity where these qualities can co-exist harmoniously, as they do in a completed work of art. It too, is in the home of a dear friend.

Ultramarine...one of my favorite colors.

This is one panel of a triptych I painted recently to explore size. I have been working on larger scale canvases for the best part of a year and felt the urge to scale down and see if I could achieve the same type of depth with a smaller canvas. I think i did. I love this painting and it is going to live with a special friend, which is a blessing as I will get to see it again whenever I visit. It speaks of depth. The deeper thoughts we have, the probing of ourselves to better understand our motivations and our desires. Not something for the faint hearted at times but definitely rewarding and a way of being that creates a rich and layered life. The reward for being brave enough to face oneself and acknowledge the mysterious depths inside, also the courage to face oneself in the light of that honesty and make adjustments when necessary. Not everyone lives that way but the owner of this painting does. I am proud to have it hang in her home.

'Lightness of Being' has founds it's new home here in Dallas!

This painting is rich in layering and is best shown, like most works of art, with good lighting. The original layers are still visible to read through the surface which is one of my favorite ways of working. I remember when I began painting  more than 15 years ago, one of my goals was to layer color in a way that still enabled the colors underneath to show through. Each layer effects the previous in some way (adding a blue over a yellow creates a green and so on) but by using glaze I was able to find a technique to enable the individual colors to still shine through. I marvel at great artists like Rothko and Reinhardt who have made of career of such pursuit. There is something amazing that happens when you lose yourself in a painting and it reveals it's inner being to you while you sit with it. I guess that is part of the allure of Abstract art for me. The painting requires you to stop and actually 'be' with it for it to reveal it's full self. The reveal is the reward for the viewers patience. I am pleased this painting will live on in the home of a good friend and hope it provides their family as much pleasure as it did for me with it's creation!

'Listening' has found it's new home here in Dallas!

'Listening' Oil/ Glaze on Canvas 36" x 48" 2013

This work was a wonderful lesson in listening, hence it's title. Many times I brought it out to continue working on it as it is only a few layers deep and a lot of my work is quite dense in layering. Each time I went to work on it, it literally spoke to me and said it was complete. I battled with this for a while as I loved the composition as it is but there are usually many 'stopping points' along the way in my work and I keep going with the layering to discover more. I often lose a work for a time and then it returns somewhere along the way, I have come to expect it as part of the process. There are nights when I leave the studio sure a painting is complete and then in the light of day decide to continue exploring and building, revealing, concealing until another stopping point arises. It is knowing which stopping point signals true completion that is interesting. This work spoke of completion well before my normal process would. I am so pleased I listened and resisted the temptation to build some more. It has an ethereal beauty and calmness in the energy it exudes. It is now hanging in a music studio here in Dallas and the title and the lesson it taught me seems so apt for a room dedicated to the purpose of creation. I hope it inspires many a beautiful song.