My primary interest as an oil painter has always been landscape. Over the past ten years, I have done many paintings inspired and informed by landscapes of the Great Plains, the Northern Forests, Wetlands and the Atlantic coast. The paintings I have just completed for Cheryl Hazan Gallery include Wetland and Plains paintings which were inspired by the ponds and prairies surrounding my farm in Minnesota. I have separated individual elements of the landscape such as the colors, textures and shapes of the vegetation, the land and the sky and their reflections in water. I have reassembled these parts into an abstraction. This reorganization of the separate parts of the landscape is analogous to the rearranging the notes of a tune into a new song by changing the sequence of the notes while retaining the rhythm, spirit and energy of the original tune. My paintings begin with a single “note” or brushstroke followed with a series of texture and color applications which are intended to reflect the energy and vitality of the depicted landscape. I use a variety of tools to build up the surface of the painting. An understanding of color, paint, surface and structure allows me to compose the painting extemporaneously. The composition of the painting reveals itself in the process of painting. The finished work expresses a unique and abstracted mixture of the visual and subjective elements of the landscape.
OPENING Thurs. Feb. 4th, 2010, 6 - 8pm, Feb. 4 - Mar. 9, 2010 