As time ebbs and flows, I have enjoyed a sense of satisfaction and wonderment as my paintings evolve.
What I see in the work is a reflection of my interest in music, architecture and the natural world intersecting with improvisation, playfulness and a love of color. The paintings and works on paper are musings about joy, life, and the simple pleasures of color, line and form. Above all the greatest pleasure comes from the physical process of making something by hand with the materials I know from decades of experience.
In the last few years I discovered the writings of the French composer Claude Debussy. In his words, “Music is not just the notes, but the quiet and the space between them”
The paintings from my new works were inspired by his creative ideas.
He was by his own account a colorist and a keen observer of nature, light, space and movement. He dared to edit his compositions into simple but lively arrangements of notes, rhythms and melodies that to his mind evoked calm reflection and a soulful sense of a “sincere moment in time and space.”
I have made a several series of mixed-media works on paper and paintings on hardwood panels that aspire to fulfill the composer’s admonition to nurture and playfully explore the spaces between the forms, shapes, lines and colors.
The prepared white paper and painting panels create an open atmosphere for the color and shapes to bloom, unfold and propel the expressive emotion forward at a steady tempo in the “space between the notes.”
The works are made using pure high-density water-based Golden pigment on cradled hardwood panels of cross-braced Baltic birch as well as sheets of handmade 600lbs Arches paper from France.
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