A Preview of Four Paintings
“It Happens at Night” It Happens at Night is a painting that goes along well with the “in between.” When I first started this painting, I almost painted over a lot of it because I thought it was too busy. There's a lot going on in it and I thought perhaps that’s too much. In the end, I decided not to paint it over. I got some feedback from other people and I now appreciate it more as an atmosphere. There’s a feeling of nighttime, shadows are on the ground and people are going about their business. The viewer wonders what these people are doing and where they're going. The buildings are skewed and bowed and the perspective is a little off, but that contributes to the mood. I had a very vivid dream of a fire escape, and I thought, I'm going to put that on the side of that building. I am not sure what it means. Stairs have been a personal symbol which I use in a lot of my paintings. I'm also interested in lighting. The way that this painting is lit enhances the atmosphere. I like to mess with lighting. I like when the light bounces off and illuminates certain areas that may not be “real”. It's very much like a dream. It's mysterious and you wonder, what's around the corner? “A Good Novel” This painting is called “A Good Novel” because of the figure in the corner. That figure is repeated in another cafe painting that will be in my show. I was interested in the feeling of being alone in a public place. This is a tavern or bar or restaurant, but it’s unclear what’s going on behind the counter. Why is that person walking through? There's often somebody by themselves in a bar, which begs the question what are they doing to pass the time? If you're alone, do you need a book or a phone to feel comfortable? Where are the stairs leading? How could I light the back, but not the front? I used a very limited palette and there's not a lot of variation in color. It's mostly red, a lot of neutrals, but the palette is limited. That is the cerebral part. How can I use that limited palette and still light it so that it's interesting and provocative? “Flight” This is another example of the “in between.” Consider the aberrant lighting — are they lights or are they globes? Are they planets? In several of my paintings there are references to art history through the columns and the colonnades. I enjoy those shapes. Without that structure to the composition the figures would not be grounded. I like to make sure the figures reside somewhere. One figure is levitating, not really residing, but yet there is a visual structure behind those two figures. In order for the figures to be most effective, they need to reside. “Colonnade and a Fox” This painting is more intense in color than I usually paint, especially the yellow. This is a good example of the importance of geometry to me. Even though there's so much abstraction in my paintings, geometry — even if it’s used minimally — provides a necessary structure. I love the colonnade shape. After I painted this painting, I saw a painting of De Chirico. He's an Italian painter that painted town scenes with colonnades and very distinctive shadows. After I painted this, I noticed the similarity. A lot of what I have read and viewed comes out subconsciously. What was interesting about this painting was what I could infer within the empty spaces of the colonnade and the relationship of the fox to the human figure. I made the figure transparent. It's a little bit of a kink that I put into a lot of paintings, it's a little bit strange. |