Fly By

Enamel on heavy, gesso-coated paper, 60" x 72"
$6300. Free shipping in U.S.
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For check payment or other arrangements, email don@dailyartwest.com

Work in the studio continues on these large paintings in my stone series. I love the creative freedom this type of work affords me. The process is almost diametrically opposed to the controlled, goal-oriented approach of my realist paintings. I begin without a goal in mind, just applying paint very freely and intuitively with large house painting brushes. Instead of imposing an image, I try to discover one by developing an ongoing dialogue with the painting, letting it tell me what it wants to become.

At some point the shapes of the stones suggest themselves in the marks I've made, and I begin to more or less define the forms. The rock forms give me a malleable structure for the paintings that provides an anchor, or focus for the paint. I'm happiest when the final result is a balance of representational and abstract.

Many changes occur. Traces of previous colors and shapes show through succeeding layers of paint in the search for something that feels resolved. In the painting--as in life--yesterdays affect tomorrows.

So much of the impact of an original painting, especially if it is large, is lost in reproduction. I'm including this studio shot to give a sense of scale.

Center Pivot 1

Oil on cradled board, 27" x 29"
$1900 plus $20 shipping in U.S.
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These recent works are variations on aerial landscapes.  Google Earth has made astronauts of us all.  I find it endlessly fascinating to float virtually over the globe, studying the natural organic forms of the earth's surface.  The relationship of macro to micro is inescapable:  viewed from above, a twining river fans out across a vast delta in perfect replica of the network of arteries running down my arm.  I'm especially intrigued by those points of intersection where we humans leave our mark, imposing our own geometry of patterns on the land. 

Although the forms in these paintings are abstracted and color is freely invented, their underlying structure  remains true to the actual places.  In other words:  I didn't make these designs up--they already exist in the world.

Passing Shadow

Oil on board, 30" x 30"
$2100 plus $30 shipping in U.S.
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This Instant

Acrylic on Fabriano paper, 22" x 30"
Float-mount matted and framed: $1300 plus shipping
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This painting will be in a group exhibition opening this weekend called "Simply Red (2)", celebrating the grand opening of the new Mark Woolley Gallery in Portland, Oregon. The gallery is on the 3rd floor of Pioneer Place, 700 SW 5th Avenue. I'll be at the opening on Saturday, April 21st, 5-9 PM--hope to see you there. Sounds like it will be quite a party...Mark says, wear RED!

The painting is part of an ongoing series of works I've been doing off and on for over 25 years, inspired by the human and animal motion studies of 19th century photographer Eadweard Muybridge.