I didn't paint that

A Little Big Red, 2007. oil on panel 7 x 8



Well, okay I did paint it, but what I mean is that you can not control how other people perceive or look at art. While my work in general is fairly polarizing (people either love it or hate it), I recently started a series of red cloud paintings that are particularly divisive. I mean people either really love them (like they can't help it but to buy them) or they think that I'm painting the end of the world, like in a nuclear holocaust. Two unrelated people actually said that to me. They figure the paintings must come from a very dark place in my mind and they find them very disturbing.



I can assure you that the latter is wholly untrue and the former is a little strange (not that I mind selling my work). What causes viewers to react so strongly? I just thought that a big red cloud could make an interesting painting and the color interaction could be powerful.



I guess I was right.

Classic combinations

Dusk, 2008. oil on panel 7 x 8


Another small painting that from the first of the year. I was playing with the purple/green combination....two colors that I think were made to go together.



Enjoy.

Another summer day

Afternoon Squares, 2008. oil on panel, 8 x 8

Here is yet another summer afternoon painting.

I never tire of playing with closely related visual ideas. I think it was Richard Diebenkorn who said it was only when he set up a very limited set of rules within his work that he found the freedom to try radically different ideas within those set of rules.

I keep playing with the elements of valley summer afternoons. How can I push it around, bend it, morph it, but not break the rules that I have set for myself? It's a great game to play.

This is one such painting, and it was effortless to paint. The composition and color just came together without a second thought. If only they were all this easy.