9 x 12

Oil on LInen

Maple Shadow Frame

This is an original oil painting

I go back over and over to the simple power in a vase painting. It is still life at its simplest and yet it is not as easy as it looks to pull off visual interest with one subject. So it is also a challenge.

I am a huge admirer of Richard Diebenkorn and Wayne Thiebaud, If you know these artists you can see their influence on my work. If you don’t know them then do yourself a favor and google them. They are both amazing colorists. My reason to mention these artist hero’s of mine is to tell you that despite all of them being known for their majestic amazing jaws dropping masterpieces, my heart just soars when I see the way they each handle the simple and direct still life. A knife in a glass. One flower in a glass. An orange and a knife. It was my reading about them and wanting to literally be them that taught me that it is not always the grand painting that can take your breath away, a small intimate still life or landscape can do the same thing. They taught me to paint what you can, when you can and that masterpieces might be for when you don’t have a day job and a bartending job.

As a more seasoned person and artist I get it. When you paint massive paintings you are coming into that work as a different person every day. But with a small all prima painting ( that means it is painted in one sitting) it is the purest form of artistic expression. Not better, not worse, but different.

If I had a time machine I would go try to hang out with them. But even I see the issues with that. : ) WHO is this stalker they would ask?