Here we are in the New Year, and maybe with it, bringing new hopes, dreams, a resolution or two and...well… maybe more of the same. The studio brushes are wet again after a hiatus and of course I've brought those hopes, dreams and resolutions with me into the studio. For one, I want to reach new levels in my art, how I interpret the land and how I get there with my materials. Maybe it's more pronounced before I start the work for my shows.
Sustenance, oil on canvas, 30x40, 2015
Last November, I revisited the Bosque del Apache south of Socorro to refuel and gather more material. Along with the Tallgrass Prairie in Northern OK, this place is deeply tied to my soul as a painter. It is a mystery, this intense bond. Perhaps it's that all parts of the land…water, sky, grass, trees…weave together in perfect harmony. But, then the color! And sunrise. And sunset. It is magical. I could spend a lifetime interpreting it.
So here I am, with fresh material and in the process of getting ready for a show in early March in Tulsa Those dreams and hopes and resolutions I was talking about? I want them to come into this new work. I want the colors of the Bosque to resonate and the grasses to flow like no other work I've done before. I just have to get out of the way, right? Let the mystery and beauty of the land come though on it's own.
Happy New Year!