Images and Thoughts

I just finished another 18x24in painting, the second in a group of work more directly exploring what it is to be in a dream of a place. For now it's called 'Ruins and Rain'. The other in this group which I've posted here before is also below, named 'A Green Peak' for now. Both will be at the Fraker Scott Gallery in April and May.

Ruins and Rain is the first painting that I've finished with a direct reference to architecture in it. Landscapes as I experience them in dreams are an appropriate next step for me towards blending more diverse elements of representation and abstract formalism in my work. In such experiences there tends to be an overarching mood of one kind or another, and a lot of uncertain spaces and objects. Having a more flexible space to work with will allow me to make better use of my non-representational knowledge of paint, and continue to explore that side of things while also of course taking steps into the newer and different realm of recognizable subjects, possibly even figuration. 

I have been reading a lot of John Ruskin's writings on painting recently and I'm hoping to bring more 'thought', as he describes it, to my painting. He has put into specific words a lot of the concerns I've had about my work and hopefully my next few paintings will reflect new efforts to advance the content of my work in some new (and close to my heart) directions. There have definitely been things not present in my work that I want to bring to the table...