Nature Reconsidered Exhibit Juror's Statement

 

It was nice to win 1^st Place in the Nature Reconsidered Exhibition. The Juror's Statement by Myles Calvert, Assistant Professor – Printmaking, College of Visual and Performing Arts, Winthrop University is very well written. 

Considerations such as warm paper hue, make this graphite drawing / textured rubbing, a stand out work. Gestural marks, which are seemingly spontaneous are, in fact, carefully considered and logically placed. Areas of intense detail allow for a restful area of photographic calm, before moving to texture-heavy offerings of what a tree should feel like. The drawing allows for artistic freedom but does not fall short of pairing a refreshing use of positive / negative space and stimulating the mind to what branches may even smell like. A familiar image ratio combined with unusual cropping, dictates a contemporary expression of a truly explored and historical subject.

This statement reminds me of how my friend Don Michael can write about art! 

 

Vicarious Exhibition: Fire Series

The Elder Gallery of Contemporary Art is hosting an exhibition of art by Veterans. I am one of the featured artists and veterans. These paintings from my fire series will be in the exhibition. The above watercolor is titles Cave Fire. The fire in this painting illuminates petroglyphs from the American Southwest. It is 18 x 24 inches. I used a layering technique which resulted in over 20 layers of color.

Fire Light, Acrylic on canvas.

Flame, watercolor on paper.

Blazing Fire

This is one of the paintings in my fire series: blazing fire.  It is an acrylic painting, 18 x 24.  I started with a black and white under painting, then layered or glazed the colors on top.  It is a combination of realistic and abstract.  The logs are realistic and the flames are abstract shapes.  The cast shadows on the logs and rocks came out very well.