In college I did a piece based on Mondrian called “Mondrian Bathroom Tile”. It was one of his primary compositions reinterpreted by me with a urinal handle in the left corner. It was also stolen from the statewide show, it must have been a popular piece.

I never cared too much for Mondrian’s work, distilling something to it’s essence wasn’t something that entered my mind, I wanted to learn to paint what I saw. Years gone by and he still has some influence on me. I look at this piece and I see “Broadway Boogie Woogie”. The grid has me for good or ill.

This is the final piece based on an earlier post of my self portrait which, I’m told, doesn’t look a thing like me. Here your chance to see what I see.

I started this painting with an acid yellow base and red . I asked my model April if I could use her a s brush. She’s small with great definition. I placed green and purple along the edges of the painting, she lied in the paint and water mixture and I guided her back and forth over the surface three or for times until an image emerged. I then spent about 20 hours on the result, finding shapes and edges.  This varies greatly from my normal color palette. I never use an acid green like this and tried to tone it down throughout the painting. I gave up fighting with it about 17 hours into the work and something happened. I used a color that matched the green and the drawing unified. It shimmers in the light like an insect’s wing, impossible to capture with my camera.

I am the featured artist this month at My Color Image Gallery in Chattanooga, TN. Here’s a preview of the featured works and a thanks to Kate O’Brien Clarke, the model for a majority of the Dysphagia Series.

[View with PicLens]

Sometimes there are paintings where the muse takes over and magic jumps from the surface and guides my hand. I didn’t think much of this one when I added the blue green layer. It was truly as mess. I walked by it a few times and then I saw the seashell  pop out at me. I nailed to to the wall and the was the Moon, mouth agape and singing in my ear. The clouds formed themselves with the help of some oils that Whitney gave me. This isn’t my usual color palette and I never use flesh color. It worked great for this composition.

I’ve never been too found of this shade of yellow but it does work well in this composition.

I started this piece back in the Raw Visceralia days. It sat in my basement in Portland for years, starring at me from the gloom, it always gave me a giggle. I finished it in Wilmington. It’s called Perry and Truffle for lack of a better name.