Portfolio of Works

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     This body of work is an extension of the tradition advanced in the 1960s and 70s, variously known as hard-edge abstraction or colorfield painting (but at times identified as minimal, cool, post-painterly, etc.).  That work was derived from earlier 20th century non-figural abstraction classified as de Stijl, Neoplasticism, Russian Constructivism, Orphism and late-Cubism.  

While I haven’t abandoned the easel and use paintbrushes, the surface is devoid of perceptible texture and traces of paint-handling, except for the slight ridges caused by the removed tape.   I use acrylic gouache (low-binder, non-reflective, absorbent color).  Triangles, squares, rectangles, and circles are arranged in autonomous, non-hierarchical patterns that structure the compositional field.  

      My subject is color and line, and the energy that arises through the juxtapositions created by abrupt transitions between pattern areas.  Patterns are used repeatedly across separate works, although not bound by color or scale. I think of each as a block reminiscent of a batik tjap, or a syntactical unit such as a prepositional phrase or a subject and its predicate; thus the vocabulary of these works is comprised of fundamental, interchangeable, yet variable, units and the language is continually evolving. Where a pattern is placed in relation to others in any given work, as well as variations in color and scale, offers infinite possibilities for structuring the surface. 

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     Encaustic is a paint comprised of highly-pigmented pharmaceutical-grade beeswax that’s been strengthened by the addition of damar resin.  The resins permits the beeswax, once cold, to harden and develop a sheen. The artist paints hot (beeswax begins to melt at 145 degrees F), and each layer of paint is fused to the previous layer through melting. I use several fusing tools: heat gun, tacking iron, and a propane and butane touch, as well as a heat lamp.  Because the paint is moving from a solid to a molten state, and back again, and because matter that I’ve added to the process (such as oil, powdered pigments, graphite, beads, glass, berries or other natural objects) as well as carvings into the under layers, provide barriers or resistance to the flow of hot wax, events begin occurring that add up to marks made, then ‘caught’ permanently, the way bits of pollen or seed can be captured in amber.  It’s a very dynamic process, one that I can shape, but not control entirely. 

     About my “Wave Series”:  The top portion is powdered pigment which I apply by hand rubbing it into warm wax with a cosmetic sponge and fusing lightly with the heat gun. The bottom, wave portion, is painted by adding several layers of color, the darkest first and gradually adding lighter colors. Then I apply oil stick.  When the heat gun hits the oil paint it causes separation imagery to appear when the wax works its way up into the oil (much like oil on water).  Then I add some macropearl powdered pigment which helps me to create foam, but the major part of the wave-like imagery is caused by heating the wax back to a liquid state and using the air current created by the heat gun held at an angle.  In this way I am creating waves which then become capture when the molten wax-and-resin mixture cools.

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These are traditional Islamic geometric patterns, some going back to 1200 AD, and found in various locations throughout the Islamic world and in various materials:  carved in wood,  cast in ceramics, or woven into carpets, etc. The patterns are traditional, the color designs are my own.

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The encaustic paintings in this collection are on cradled panels and range in size from 8 x 8 to 20 x 20 inches. See "Water Series" above for a fuller description of my encaustic painting process.