BIG BEAR
The laborious process of applying and removing, the resulting fragility and possibility of failure are all essential elements if the works are to be successful. They are lessons in contradictions, photo-realism and abstraction, reality and altered states, all leading to an emotional experience.
Portraiture by definition is the recording of an individual’s appearance and personality. I don’t want to do that. The face for me is a vehicle or entrance into the work. I am more interested in the reuniting of the non-objective and the objective, and I look for the tension between the two.
BIG BEAR
The Big Bear paintings were created one winters evening back in the fall of 2000. The photographs I took lasted maybe a couple of minutes, as the cars behind me began hooting their horns and getting very impatient realizing I had just blocked the only small road leading out of the mountain. The sun was setting, and I thought the light and composition were stunning. Not realizing at that moment what I had, those few shots enabled me to create a series of over 30 paintings some years in the making.
Always fascinated with the horizon, the sense of such majesty brings into question life and creation and tests our mental and visual perception. I found this broken horizon a welcome change to disrupt the balance of the image.
Big Bear, paynes grey, lamp black no. 44
Natural earth pigments, walnut oil,
active carbon mineral air purifying paint,
French marble dust, active charcoal, limestone
powder on 100% organic canvas.
48 inches diameter, 2023
Big Bear, paynes grey, lamp black no. 45
Natural earth pigments, walnut oil,
active carbon mineral air purifying paint,
French marble dust, active charcoal, limestone
powder on 100% organic canvas.
48 inches diameter, 2023
