Exhibition Statement | Thumbnails
Postcards from Italy
Italy has meaning for me. I felt I was experiencing my artistic heritage as I traveled around the country. I saw masterpieces by da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raphael, and others. I saw the landscape, the architecture, and the people that influenced their work and now influences my own. I traveled from place to place in Italy absorbing the look, the feel, and the atmosphere. My work utilizes aspects of linear perspective, and an insistence of structure and volume as it ties itself to the ideas of the Italian Renaissance. More closely related to modern eras are my application of paint and use of color.
It is what it is. Art is about life. This show shares my experiences. Each painting captures a mood or feeling as I study how light and color create structure, form, and space. My images are interpretations of the reality I experienced. I strive to evoke the essence of what I witnessed, though I will often omit or modify elements to make a stronger visual statement. I am a studio artist. While on location I record the scene using my camera and sketchbook. I like to take it all in and sort it out later back in my studio. My sketches and pictures become the reminder or memory cue of the places and forms, while I look inside for the color and spirit of the image.
I use oil paint because I respond the sensual nature of the medium. It has a particular flow off the bristles of the brush. The tactile response of using wet paint into wet paint brings the act of painting alive. With the surface malleable, I blend new colors into old. The smaller size of these paintings allows me the time to paint before it dries. Another facet of the small size is the single focus of energy contained in each painting. Each painting is not a long drawn out affair but instead the culmination of a focused burst of creativity. This creates a consistent “feel” to the painting as a whole. It makes it more accurate in its reflection of the essence of the image.