Distance
Eastern Oregon high desert cliffs, foothills, and skies.
A liberal mix of acrylic, watercolor, gouache, and oil sticks.
These views and tools are what I used to make this collection of mixed media paintings on paper and canvas titled Distance.
Local landscapes and a crafted color palette were my focus when starting these paintings. I enjoyed the process, colors, and lightness of these works as they came together.
Canvas
This collection is made of small paintings on 8x10 or 9x12 inch paper and large 30x30 inch canvases. The warm rich color palette creates a range of feelings from light easy mornings, storm gathering skies, or hot summer sunsets. The cliffs, foothills, and skies I painted stand along a highway I travel almost daily.
This is the first group of paintings I’ve made in over ten years that doesn’t include any people or animals. When I tried adding figurative elements to these compositions they just didn’t fit. The feel immediately changed from a faraway landscape view to a zoomed in scene. The cliffs, clouds, and mountains needed space to breathe.
I was drawn to these subjects for their distant blurred appeal.
Paper
My painting practice has changed with the addition of more small works on paper. Through these studies and notes I’m learning new way of making marks, using more diverse materials, and mixed media techniques. I’m feeling a back and forth between what’s close and what’s far away.
A collection of purely abstracted landscapes is a step towards new sources of details for close up work.
