Extremes

by | Mar 14, 2020 | The Hungry Eye

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 memory of a place:

Right of Way

oil on 3 wood panels                   16 X 36                          2018 

One from a vague memory of a photo that rather flamboyantly became something completely other:

untitled

oil on panel                       36 X 48                        2018

 & then, almost as an aside, just paint and image:

Under the Willow

oil on 2 panels                24 X 36                     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

& crossing sensory receptors:

Sound of Fire

oil in linen                  60 X 80                        1986

Here are monsters, sadness & jokes:

East Wolffland

oil on linen                       44 X 68                      2005

Waltz

oil on linen              49 X 59               2012

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.