Reflections of Home.

In my earliest art pieces the landscape is implied. The dilemma has always been how to represent the landscape without it becoming too contrived, to predictable. Because of the passing of time element in my art, landscapes seem like the perfect vehicle. It wasn’t until I started what I later referred to as the “Reflections of Home” series that I really became inspired to try landscapes. I had found some old pictures I had taken of the Mississippi valley when I was young. I have always had a fascination with the river and the bluffs that line it. Again the problem lay in how to do a landscape without compromising my overall focus and oeuvre as an artist. I found the solution in drawing the image by placing cord under a second layer of paper and then tearing it through that layer to leave an image. I wanted to continue with my original color changing principles of cool colors in the morning that warmed up as you worked your way past eventually leaving the warm colors of afternoon. It is interesting to note that the original vision for my color changing paintings had come from some early college works I titled “The Sun on the Swamp” series which traced the relationships between the swamp and the elements that worked on it. Here I was returning to those roots. I have always thought of my works as neoimpressionism. In these works I was revisiting the impressionists’ preoccupation with light change during different periods of the day. Unlike the impressionists’ I let the light change the painting. Depending on the light direction or viewers’ orientation the color will change. I am somewhat limited in my palette of colors. As an artist I have set up certain perimeters which I feel uncomfortable going outside of. Is funny how we as artist spend our early years tearing down established order only to surround ourselves with an even more rigid set of rules. At a later time I will take a look at some of my later landscapes which are done in a different method.



Mississippi 1 (left)



 



  



Mississippi 1







Mississippi 1 (right)

 


Mississippi 2




Mississippi Night




Mississippi 3