Phil Finds Himself Skinny-Dipping With Some Cranky Pinnipeds. Painting

As far back as I can remember, I have drawn and painted faces. In fact, there is much evidence pointing to the fact that I spent an inordinate amount of time drawing Sister Mary Francis Catherine in 3rd Grade instead of paying attention to her in math class. All my paintings start out as tiny little sketches in my Moleskine sketchbook. I do tons of 2” thumbnail sketches every week, so when it’s studio time I always have plenty of starter ideas to work with. All of my paintings come from my imagination but I find plenty of inspiration in real life—it’s stranger than fiction! My most recent work is acrylic, collage and graphite and my color choices are mostly instinctual. I almost always start with complementary colors—I love the tension that occurs with colors that are opposites on the color wheel. In the final stages of a painting I will try to repeat colors and I often use glazes to pull together a composition and create harmony. I always paint on black gessoed canvas—color is just so much more vibrant and rich than painting on a white surface. And the math that I daydreamed through in 3rd Grade now shows up in my paintings as “pretend equations” and symbols scratched into the backgrounds or drawn on top of the paint. Sister Mary Francis would be so proud.