Trapped!

I know that sometimes I can sound somewhat esoteric about my experience painting and the paintings I make. Nevertheless, I am much more emotionally connected to my paintings than anything else I have every created.

This is a painting that is an example of the emotional struggle I experience sometimes (nothing of great significance). I knew what effect I wanted from the painting when I started but it was very difficult to get it right. I "feel" like the painting really go away from me. Several various attempts to capture the effect of two worlds in one painting eluded me.

I am satisfied with the end result without any further explanation. It will not be an easy painting to understand for some. But I find the message, or emotion communicating what I intended. The effect does not represent well in a small image of the photo - it needs to be experienced in person.

Trapped In Two Worlds - 2009
36 X 30
Oil on Canvas

Self Portraits

These two paintings are actually a pair belonging to one piece of work. I've called them "Self Portrait #1" and "Self Portrait #2" but they are hardly representational. This chair sits in the downtown Judge J.T. Smith Sculpture Garden as part of the 2009 exhibit. It is an entrancing chair and full of all sorts of fun and imagination.

Self Portrait No. 1 - 2009
16 X 20
Oil on Canvas

A Self Portrait No. 2 - 2009
16 X 20
Oil on Canvas

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Stormy Weather and A Red Wood

Here are two paintings I've recently completed.

The first is a 56X56 canvas. For the time being, I'm calling it Stormy Weather. I've had this large canvas mounted and ready to paint for about 2 1/2 months. I've been waiting for the canvas to tell me what to put on it or for formulation in my mind of what I knew should go on the canvas. I have set aside several ideas very different than this. Where this idea came from is an image (shape) that is recurring in the paintings of John Karl Claes. Claes has used a big sweeping turn of a canal in some of his landscapes. How the image from his paintings ended up looking like this in my painting is a mystery to me, but I like the painting.

WT - Stormy Weather - 2009
56 X 56
Oil on Canvas

The second painting posted here might be finished or it may not. I've continued to work on it but I have probably completed what I've wanted to do. I've titled it "A Red Wood" but it is a departure from my previous "wood" paintings. I never know, sometimes a painting steers me in ways I did not expect to go. This painting is a good example of that dynamic. Again, no photo will properly represent a painting - it must be seen in person.

A Red Wood - 2009
36 X 24
Oil on Canvas