Text for the exhibition “Field Line”.

The painting begins with my observing the landscape.   Looking is the first act,  scanning the landscape horizontally and vertically.  I envision the motif, then sketch directly onto the canvas.  These marks are  transparent, the first gesture on the canvas contains the whole image.   

In the studio, I build the painting gradually, in stages, detaching  from the initial stage.  I add color spots, covering different areas, trying to preserve the presence of the original motif within ongoing acts of subtraction; the result is felt as tone, sound and movement. With every mark I strive to preserve the whole.

Painting is a slow method of discovery, shaped by transparent lines that emanate from my body onto the canvas.  The paint I remove is re-covered with vertical and horizontal layers of white, creating a grid that is heavy and exposed. The painting develops from a line that does not exist in nature, and from fields and spots of color, through a process of  adding and subtracting, dividing and connecting.

I think of my process as “field line”: an inner tension that does not exist in nature.  There is light, material, and space —  painted, these create presence and meaning. The line is an act of painting; it has tone and movement.  It connects points of color and holds the field.