keys in A minor,  36 x 36   oil on canvas

    This group of paintings, started in late 2011 and early 2012, marks a “coming full circle” for me.  I've experimented with landscape

abstraction in earlier periods of my career, so this series isn't an altogether new direction.  During the past few years, my desire to produce paintings that are more intuitive and less Euro-centric in format has been a catalyst for change.  

    As with my earlier, more traditional landscapes, I have used nature based imagery.   The difference now, however, is that I am focusing on more specific objects and sometimes just parts of those objects.  My observations of the woods in the back of my house offer an ever changing arrangement of colors, forms and patterns.   And, while I do some on-site sketches, I am more likely to draw on the memory of those observatons rather than recreating a landscape "scene".   Each piece is started with a combination of gestural lines and ambiguous shapes.  Lines, shapes and colors are added and taken away in layers until the composition takes form.  Before a work is in its final stages, I photograph it and digitally alter the color in Illustrator.  I use these digital “maquettes” to guide me with my palette as I complete the painting.  

southern light,  83 x 50 (triptych),   12/11	pine woods,  36 x 40, 1/12	night trees, 24 x 36, 1/12