On Canvas
I love painting on canvas, but the muse gifts me infrequently. I’ve gone for years without lifting a brush and then in the space of month or two churned out a dozen or more pieces. I went through a digital phase in the early 2000s. I’ve returned to digital recently but also returned to acrylic. Often I will begin a painting with only the vaguest of ideas. Even then what I thought I was painting would change and I would be off in an entirely different direction. What I’m presenting here covers the last 25 years or so of what I’ve produced. Presented in no particular order. I’ll reiterate, every interpretation is valid, even if not the one I intended.
Organic Interlude #1 2025
Digital painting. 40×30 inches. Nod to abstract expressionism, the main shape is organic but stylized and surrounded by dark and light.
Phantoms 2022
Digital painting. 30×40 inches. Two ghostly faces tormenting the unseen mind. One of the last “pushers” I’ve completed. The idea is simple, dump some blocks of color on a digital canvas and start pushing and pulling them around. Sometimes something happens. Sometimes mud is the result. I have s series of abstract landscapes I created using this method.
Reality Exclusion 2010
Digital painting. 30×40 inches. Another of my “pusher” pieces. She is diffiult to describe so I’ll leave it up to the individual imagination to interpret.
Globes 2021
Acrylic on canvas. 18×24 inches. A study in globe shapes.
From Within 2021
Acrylic on canvas. 18×24 inches. I pose the question, which is stronger, light or darkness. Both come from within. This piece was inspired by snow on a tree trunk.
Sky On Fire 2010
Digital Painting/Manipulation. 30×24 inches. Forest fire coming up a backslope. I had intended for this to be a simple sunset. A Photoshop filter here, another there.
Bird on the Beach 2011
Digital painting. 30×24 inches. Based on a photograph, just warm feelings and relaxation.
Beset 2010
Digital painting. 32×24 inches. Abstract human figure surrounded by threats. Some obvious, some not so much.
Dance in Hell 2010
Digital Painting. 24×20 inches. Male figure dancing in what appears to be hell. A soul set free cannot be tormented.
Caged 2025
Digital painting. Abstract figure blocked in what might be a mental cage.
Confusion 2009
Digital Painting. Monochromatic, with broad brush strokes of a nude young man bound by confusion. I did a series of figurative pieces during the same time period. Honestly, this is the best of the bunch.
Emergence 2010
Digital Painting. An experiment in painting without thought. Paint, with a blank mind until something emerges, then work that. Hence the title Emergence. Sliced Fruit was another possible title since the upper and lower yellow shapes resemble some sort of sliced fruit, with the orange and red shape resembling a knife.