Portfolio
Artist Statement
Online Information
Canyons
Encaustic with oil stick and graphite on wood, 12x12"
Three
Encaustic with oil paint on wood, 12.5x12.5"
I went from making representational art to creating abstract art, so that I could focus on the elements which have always been the most important to me: surface, texture and color. I want my paintings to have a sense of history and a feeling of the passage of time. I would like my audience to feel that the work is familiar, in some way, and that the paintings have lived before and in doing so the works are showing the dichotomies of that prior life as layers of the past seen through memory, a kind of pentimento.
The paintings are richly textured, created with layers of color which are often scraped to reveal the color or layers beneath. Or the paint may be applied thinly to allow the viewer to see what came before. The paintings are flat, often patterned and linear, they are created with a vertical orientation to eliminate any reference to landscape. I use the sensual and often subtle properties of color, juxtaposing them along with texture to denote the passage of time.
Meditation and spirituality, which I have practiced and studied is one influence on the work, reading another. Artists who have influenced me are many, among them Robert Ryman, Agnes Martin, Sean Scully, Mark Rothko and the early work of Frank Stella. Visual space also plays an important part in the work and has an important influence on my work.
I would like the viewer to have a sense of quietness, and calmness when they see the work. I look forward to an audience that reacts with a sense of peace when looking at my work, while, at the same time, wondering what was beneath it.
www.joyartist.com