Friday, December 23, 2011

Thursday, December 15, 2011

Avis Angelus: Tondo






"Avis Angelus: Tondo"

Acrylic, ink, oil, gold leaf on wood panel, 18” across

I painted this on a round 18" wood panel. First I stained the wood to accentuate it's beautiful grain, and then pressed some large inkblots across the surface. After that, I worked to find images in the random patterns that had been created. The gold sun is a small knot in the wood.
This is a fascinating, meditative process to me, and one that I picked up from Max Ernst via Leonardo Da Vinci.

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Monday, December 12, 2011

Rockscape 2


Rockscape II (16" x 20" Acrylic, Oil, Marble Dust on Wood Panel)

I had a grand time building up these textures with marble powder. It's a departure from a lot of what I do, but I love and miss the massive rocks from the Western deserts where I grew up.

Friday, December 9, 2011

Kudzu Spirits




One of the first things I noticed after moving to the South was the kudzu draping the trees and changing them into strange, Max Ernst-like monsters. James Dickey wrote a poem about the kudzu--here's a tiny excerpt:

                    half out of leafage
As though they would shriek,
Like things smothered by their own
Green, mindless, unkillable ghosts.

Monday, December 5, 2011