Orange Aspens #2 Painting

IN BRIEF: These small abstract pieces were all painted while hiking in Utah, Colorado, the Eastern Sierras, Nevada, and New Mexico. They are done in oil on artisanal paper. These abstract paintings were all done in their entirety “en plein air” along those hiking trails. MORE ABOUT THE WORK: When I look around at the natural world, I see that no object is a pure, single color, but rather a mix of incidental hues combined to give an impression of a color. The idea of discernible local colors or even colors that are interrelated in some systematic way doesn't make sense to me. Once I started applying this idea of impure, aggregate colors, the forms in my paintings started to break down. So rather than well defined forms, there are really only zones in my work with different colors that are not pure within them. I work outdoors in oils on hand-made paper. This portable approach dates back to the beginnings of landscape painting in Europe and America. Artists like Corot went to Italy to capture it’s light, and Hudson River School painters went west to record the shape of the continent using this same method. This was a traditional way to study from “Nature”. In this spirit, I’ve been painting in remote natural areas – on public lands in America’s western deserts and mountains. Places which are ever more rare, and now threatened by population pressures, wildfires, and development.