Most of my paintings are nature-based. I love tangled swirls of sea weed, layers of cloud and color at sunset, and the translucence of the sea. We see it every day ~~ if we are lucky enough to live here ~~ our on-going Island miracle. The process of painting for me involves a love of color and texture and the qualities of oil paint. I like to vary the thicknesses or the paint, using light washes, thick smudges, streaks, drips and splashes. I might make a sweeping mark of orange, then ground it with some cooler washes of green and blues. Colors are a form of light and are very nourishing to us on an unconscious level.
Always working with what is appearing on the canvas, I may try to find the right gestures and color combinations to evoke something I saw during a recent beach walk-- a bunch of flowers scattered down a fallen patch of clay bluff, the cool of a secluded salt marsh with its burst of red winged blackbirds, or how it feels swimming underwater with eyes open. This form of painting is a mixture of pleasure and experiment. Working from heartfelt and sensory levels makes it easier to bypass the insistent ego, and the creative process gains ground. In this way, a more direct relationship between nature, self and creativity align with a quiet and expansive source of being, a very big freedom.
