The line up

The Line Up (i)
Oil on Canvas Panel
4x8"

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I found these cups at the thrift store yesterday - the best place for random objects I get it into my head to paint! I'm going to experiment with lighting the same subject over the next few days - I went into the studio this morning and the sunshine was casting a beautiful backlight on them, as I 'd left the cups set up from yesterday. I find the simple white forms really peaceful. I'm also stretching canvases today, for my multi-tasking experiment of 3 canvases at once....I might be in the loony bin by next week.

Stegasaur

Stegasaur
Oil on Canvas Panel
6x12"

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This is Taylor climbing a boulder problem called Stegasaur in Hueco Tanks State Park, Texas. It is an amazing, thought provoking problem, which involves climbing wave type rock features under the roof of a cave. None of the holds are positive, and Taylor performed some incredibly gymnastic moves to emerge from the murky depths. I spied this quite revolting vantage point from the outside of the cave, and despite the copious rat and bat scat, crawled in to capture this image. I'm glad I did now, because I think it's one of the most successful climbing images I took out of our whole road trip - and that's saying something - I've got thousands of digital photographs, drawings and paintings from the 18 months or so we were traveling for.

A common theme is emerging from both my paintings and photographs...light. Dramatic light, usually from a single source, is becoming the defining feature of my work. It's strange, I've always been interested in light effects, chiaroscuro particularly, but I'm only finding now that my compositions are just organically trending 'toward the light'.

This is a study, as most of these daily paintings are, and I'll post the final painting when it's done...it's going to be HUGE!!