INNOVATIVE CONTEMPORARY PAINTINGS
After working for many years as a sculptor, I find I still carry through from that earlier discipline a strong preoccupation with surface, texture. I am not concerned with making pictures with a story.
The paint, the primary material, is paramount as I manipulate it to harmonize and tune the various elements of the work. I hope to provoke response from the viewer that is not literal; I seek deeper reactions, these are not verbal communications.
I do not attempt to provide explanations, as I do not myself ‘understand’ these paintings. For me. a painting succeeds if it works, it is in tune with itself, and finally, it offers me glimpses of mystery. I do not need to seek some explanation, nevertheless eventually, a title comes to mind which seems to fit, to be apposite. These titles are mostly not descriptions, merely access keys.
I often use musical terms in talking about my work. There are great similarities in the underlying thinking of these different art forms; they both use such concepts as tonal values, high or low key etc. In explaining my work I like to say that while some music is accompanied by lyrics, other music is purely instrumental. As a painter, I would say that I lean towards the latter.
