This is a detail of a larger painting I am currently working on. It’s been a struggle. I used to paint birds years ago, and then turned away from them. I’m not sure why, maybe because I became more interested in exploring beyond the subject of the painting. I had more I wanted to say about painting than merely depicting a subject, which seemed a bit shallow to me. I had deeper waters to explore.

So I took a detour, a path around the subject and focused on creating a sense of place, movement and light, the intangible aspects of painting. It continues to this day.

And now I am back again, with a bird, because I haven’t finished what I started to say about them. Such ethereal creatures they are to me, here now then gone in a heartbeat. I am on the cusp of a certain quality I have been searching for and it’s exhilarating, liberating and paradoxically filling me with apprehension. It’s like painting while holding my breath, reaching for something through the fog, something only felt, unseen and just out of reach.

Reaching before it flies away.

To study the colors of light, I often paint the same subject at the same time of day.

I painted the the following plein air paintings several years ago from behind my studio on the Tomoka river. And as much as I’ve enjoyed having them around, I think they have finally served their purpose and it’s time to let them go.

I’ll probably miss them.

Tomoka Morning No 1, Oil, 6 x 8 inches.

Tomoka Morning No 2, Oil, 6 x 8 inches.

Tomoka Morning No 3, Oil, 6 x 8 inches.

Tomoka Morning No 4, Oil, 6 x 8 inches.

My favorite one is the first one. . . or maybe the fourth one.

They are all $500 each framed or $450 unframed. Drop me an email if you are interested in holding one for you ( I take layaway). Or email me anyway even if you are not interested, but just want to say hi, and find out where my new studio is. Sometimes I let people visit, if they bring me a Starbucks.

CloudLight, Oil on Linen, 54 x 36 inches

This painting is from 2006.
A hard year.

Egg Tempera on Panel, 20 in. x 16 in.

Years ago, I drew and painted birds, portraits of birds, to understand how they moved, first still, then flying.  Then I moved on to painting the environment surrounding them to understand how they lived.

The landscape expanded and I became mesmerized by the changing colors of light. The idea of birds got smaller as the idea of light got larger.

I  fell in love with the light.

Gradually the birds became very small and eventually flew out of my paintings all together. My paintings became all about the light.

They still are.

Lately, I have been sketching birds again by the sea, and in the mountains, and I think I have not finished saying all I want to say about birds.

And the way light falls on them.

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