Thoughts on Painting

A. The literature (story) of the subject is interesting, but interferes with the seeing of the visual painting. 

*Is not to be confused with subject matter. Subject matter is the literature into the story that is being painted. Subject is the visual experience of the painting.

B. The seeing or reading of a painting is complicated; the flat canvas in a three-dimensional world encourages you to eliminate conflicting thoughts. To the point where abstract painting became a visual signature, and the need to include a figure, an obsession. Using sticks and dripping paint, Pollock made 10 sq feet neo-classical heads. Milton Resnick uses haunting primitive figures in his dark space. 

C. Max is still working on. Using subject matter as a personal choice, I play with it until it is familiar and free of its literature. The repetition of a structure, freeing the colors, including a mood……. 

D. To give some idea of how I work and arrive at one of my paintings hear a story or literature is my story at a rehabilitation hospital. Lying in bed staring at the open door and the bright yellow light of the open hallway, illuminating my foot and room. My intention wants to use the structure of the space to free its expression, using the structure, composition, form, colors, mood; these are words, but painting on a flat two-dimensional surface is a visual experience.  It takes time to experience, it is a form of reading. Though the instant image does not change and can be returned to. You change seeing new relationships.

E. Direct visions. To see without preconceptions beneath the surface form controls the flat canvass. Structure relates the various forms, gestures and marks.

After meditation and doodling, floating my thoughts wordlessly, often understanding what I am doing before the words are formed. Approaching the materials, it is choosing the fluidity of color that takes most direct debate. I try to present the subject (introduce) rather than speak to the future of the subject, and for the viewer to see the totality of the painting.