My Art

What inspires me? I look to a number of resources for direct inspiration that may lead me to start developing a piece of artwork. Sometimes it may be a passing photo or a story, or just my own imagination that brings an idea to mind. But what really motivates me to put an image on a piece of paper is hard to really nail down. I know there are a number of things that get my brain juices flowing but a couple of themes routinely rise to the top.
I am a designer by trade. I employ my efforts day by day manipulating colors, images, copy, shapes, and lines to create an ongoing relationship with consumers. I believe what I do is create visual stories slices of life that define and enhance a brands presence in the mind of an individual not a massive audience. Though my client’s like to look at the big picture a broad brushstroke of people and what may entice the majority of them to make a purchase decision. I do my best work if I remember that I am speaking to an individual. You place yourself in the character of a brand and you imagine your having a conversation with another person. That is a little simplistic but it gets to the heart of my point of view when I create original artwork.
I’m very interested in communicating with the casual observer of my artwork. No matter how long they may engage with my art I would like for them to walk away with a new thought or memorable experience. Of course this means that there has to be something meaningful and memorable about the painting that sparks the observer’s interest which is always a difficult proposition. My best bet is to make the painting visually interesting first and then create a story. My most recent paintings concentrate on creating a visual interest and less on establishing a deeper meaning. I have a long way to go before my painting style is unique and differentiating mostly at this point I would be happy if someone is able to pick up the intended ambiance.
Lately I’ve been experimenting with technique in addition to subject matter to create this ambiance. I really enjoy using paint as a sculpting tool to give the effects of a relief sculpture. When the paint lifts off the canvas it creates a texture that reacts to different lighting situations by providing many shadow and color transitions and helps the painting come to life. Also just having a painting that interacts with space as well as light creates something a little more tangible than just a two dimensional piece of art capturing a moment in time. Now you have a solidified three-dimensional work of art that acts like a sculpture but has the color, composition and visual attraction of a painting.
I’m really jazzed by the ambiance that ocean and costal subjects can create. I know this is not an original subject but it has been giving me inspiration to paint. I have been trying to put my own personal spin on these subjects and that’s where Jonah’s Last Look came from. It’s just not productive for me to create artwork for beauty’s sake I would get board really fast so I have to add some sort of twist that will hold my attention long enough to finish a painting.
Moving forward I would like to push further the development of a unique original style. I think it is really important to look fresh and have a style that is attractive yet one of a kind. Some artist who have been influencing how I paint are "Vincent van Gogh" for his strong lyrical paintings and linear techniques, "Paul Gauguin" for his island venues and finally "Murray Tinkelman" for his total obsession with his line work.
Well I think this is enough rambling for now later I want to capture how the current design trend of inspired simplicity affects how I approach my current work. This weekend I will be working on a new seascape and with luck I will be posting it here relatively soon.

This is a fairly old sketch I created it while I was at my sister's farm on a sunny fall day. Most of the leaves had already fallen from the trees but as you looked back through the skeleton of branches you could see some clumps of leaves holding on to dear life not wanting to give up the ghost. The fallen leaves on the ground appeared to have a purple tint strongly contrasting with the bright orange and red leaves that remained in the trees. Those last few leaves were really giving off tons of bright color too emphasized even more by the angle of the sun.
When I first started painting the sketch I was trying to capture a realistic interpretation of the scene. But sense I'm not much of a realistic painter I found myself getting frustrated with trying to paint this way. The painting took less then three hours to paint but most of the look and feel was created in last twenty minutes when I finally got fed up with myself trying to be a realist and started adding allot of loose expressive brushstrokes. Though there is not allot of real craftsmanship to the painting I do like how the color turned out. Even with all the frustration it was still one of the most fun times I've had painting.

This is a painting I created for my wife this past Christmas. She was inspired by an illustration of a cottage she really liked on a postcard and asked me to create a painting from it. I took the opportunity to experiment with style a little by mixing traditional brush techniques and a pseudo pointillism style. Most of the flowers, shrubs and greenery are constructed with points of color while the house and trees are made up of traditional flat brushstrokes. You can see I painted the trees first because of how their style looks completely different from the rest of the painting. The painting took a number of weeks to complete as I patiently laid several layers of paint over top of each other.

This is the final version of NightWaves. I have added depth in the waves and sky. See earlier post for more details.

I finished this painting tonight. It was an experiment in color that turned out much better than I thought it might. I was trying to construct a color palette that I might be able to use in my next version of "Jonah's last look". I really think these colors work much better. I like their subtlety and how much they compliment each other. I like how they allow for expression in the brushstrokes without looking like they are so forced. I had a couple of frustrations with trying to make the brush I was using deliver the right amount of paint on the canvas. I didn't like the inconsistency as I laid the paint down it just seemed to glob on the bristles I'll have to do some research to find a new kind of brush that might help me control the paint better.
Looking at the painting it purposely lacks any strong central subject matter that leaves the viewer with a sense of emptiness and kind of thinking "so what". But consider the title and you'll have much more to think about.