I've been painting landscapes for about 30 years now, and have settled into the latest of many series exploring various subjects in depth. About three years ago I decided to revisit one of my most successful topics, water lilies. I wasn't sure how I was going to treat the subject matter, just that it would be quite different from the earlier series on that subject, which was titled Echo Park. Echo Park was my first in-depth adventure with a cohesive series, undertaken in the early 1990's. It was based on photographs I took of the lotus plants which to this day still populate a small pocket park in Los Angeles which is home to an annual lotus festival in July. That series exhausted itself at sixteen paintings, almost all of which were sold.
The new series, "Sky Pads", has reached over thirty paintings and fortunately shows no signs of crossing any kind of predetermined finish line. I like to tell myself that since art historians suspect that Monet painted in excess of 250 versions of his water lilies there is no danger in my leaving the goal open-ended!
My paintings over the last 30 years have been the result of experimenting with thin layers glazed over one another. I construct the image through these layers, attempting always to create a sense of depth through transparency, color, and light. I hope you can get a sense of that process when you look at the photographs. Visitors to my booth at art fairs often let me know how they were drawn into the booth by the words they use to describe their experience; "relaxing", "peaceful", "quiet", "soothing", "the colors", "misty quality", "depth", "looking through layers to see everything" are all common responses. The consistency of their responses brings me joy as I realize the emotional effect a well-executed piece of art can have on even a casual observer.