The Painting Process ...

I thought I'd give you all an example of how I go about painting my signature 'naive-surreal-folk-abstracts'. There are bascially two methods. The first is inspired by a 'real' moment in time & space, and the second method is something conjured up from the depths of my memory & imagination ...

An example of the first method, follows. During a wonderful early spring walk this year I stopped for a moment and just sucked in this view ...Trekking up the Escarpment. I was on the home stretch. It had been an intoxicating & invigorating walk. I had taken several other photographs on route, but this was the shot that best encapsulated, for me, the WHOLE walk, the MOOD of the walk, the full ATMOSPHERE of that 'End of Winter transition to the Beginning of Spring'. This time frame is a magical planetary moment to both experience & behold. All is re-surging, renewing and coming back to Life in the northern hemisphere ... The planet lives. I wanted to paint that.

After a couple of weeks, this is what I got. It's called, 'The Last Bit of Snow'.

Interestingly enough, this above 'observance' was preceded by a second method work - 'Spring2009!' . A much more 'impressionistic' item, it gets to the fundamental 'planet changing' idea with a few stark images. It documents, to my mind, the first surge when the planet is literally warming up ... The daffodils in centre and the core of the tree on left have been highlighted in gold paint to add 'luminosity' ...


The second method overall, as you can see, is a bit more quixotic. The starting point usually involves some kind of meditation on an 'idea', that is then translated & refined into a number of rough sketches. I modify where I want to go, and emphasis what I want the focus to be. The final image is then loosely colour coded. I generally have quite a firm image in my head before I start, and then I begin to paint.

There is no question though that sometimes I will deviate from that final image that I hold in my head. Something - a brush stroke, a colour combo, an outline, an adjunct thought - will entice me to follow that to greater fruition. Another example follows:


This image is complete fantasy, but quite plausible as 'a place' to come home to, no? The yellow spirals in the cypress trees in the foreground (hard to see in this repro) were an 'add on' on route and an example of what I mean about 'things happen' ... I liked the playful 'mood' they add to the overall effect. Large, the final canvas measures 3 feet high, and 7 feet across ...

I haven't given this work a 'title' yet.