Oil Paintings

Its a hard lesson to learn….how to love limits. I spent most of my creative life chasing the expressive possibilities of color without a road map or any plan of attack. Although (often) fun and enlivening, this approach leads one of wildly divergent paths. Imagine coming to a beautiful vista, and having no idea how you got there. Art IS and should be about freedom and exploration - but limits are necessary. True, confident, grounded movement is difficult. The paintings you see below began as work that insisted on single color, monochromatic expression. For what seemed like an eternity, every timr I tried to widen the color field, the paintings pulled away from me with a clear “no”.

Having finally accepted this and let myself fall into the reality of a monochromatic approach it is incredible the richness and depth that is possible when color is limited. Composition comes forth in all its power. The subtly of form emerges. Many more works in this series are still evolving and will be added as they are finished. It is only recently that I have begun to add limited color to a basically monochromatic paintings. The orange ribbon painting above is an example of this attempt. Artists who have already bravely traversed the sield of color won’t be surprised to hear that what I saw emerge within this very limited palette were the surprising capabilities of colors when pushed to their limits.