Extremes
Loose or tight-focused, slippery or with edges… individual pictures dictate the hand. Will there be lots of clearly rendered details or will things be loosey-goosey? I don’t seem to be able to control it. Once I tried to ease up the brushwork on a painting and it fought me tooth and nail till I just said OK, and let it run the show. Recently several paintings have gone the other way.
One from a vague memory of a photo that rather flamboyantly became something completely other:
untitled
oil on panel 36 X 48 2018
And then there is movement and stillness. They often inhabit each other. A very physical picture often has very still passages
Cartwheel
oil on wood 13 X 17 2008
And conversely the seemingly quiet ones may have acrobatic compositions:
The Bottle Whisperer
oil on wood 24 X 24 2014
I like it when a painting is leaping and whispering simultaneously:
The Kiss
oil on linen 48 X 60 2013
Here is a memorial to a great friend done Dr Seuss-on-acid style:
Taking Indigo Home
oil on wood 36 X 36 2013
& similarly:
Heartbreak Sunset
oil on wood 30 X 40 2015
Ultimately the roar of incoming & the struggle to escort it onto surfaces erases explanations. You get the making and you get the aftermath, hopefully indicative of the originating pulse.