Inside/Outside Paintings
Detail of Flowing Inside View painting »
These paintings are the product of a series of experiments that led me to focus on singular central forms on a field of white. They are a combination of utter spontaneity (the application of washes of watercolor) and very methodical retouching (the careful re-working of boundaries and interior forms with a very sharp pencil). The result looks effortless and fluid, and exudes a zen-like focus and essential nature.
At the time I painted these I was thinking a lot about the concept of the individual self, and how the self has a perceived border - physical and metaphysical - between itself and the outer world. What happens on the inside may or may not be apparent to the outside.
When I was a boy, I was fascinated with rocks and minerals, and collected rocks from nature, from mines and quarries, and from rock shops. I looked forward to my visits to the local rock shop, Gems & Geodes, where I would buy small samples of Tiger Eye, Labradorite, and geodes. Perhaps this interest in geodes also informs my work here: the anticipation and surprise I experienced when opening a geode parallels this fascination with the interior of the self, then opening up of the self that we, as the viewers of the painting, are afforded.
All of the paintings in this series are available for purchase as prints.
