From Sketch to Painting: The Studio Process
My work rarely begins on the canvas itself. It starts in what unfolds around me and first takes shape in sketches.
sketches and charcoal studies
The sketches emerge intuitively. Not as preparation for a final image, but as a first response. A way of holding on to something that is not yet clear. In charcoal or quick lines, I search for form, for gesture.
What I draw there is not always immediately recognizable as an “image.” Often I am still searching for what is beginning to appear.
From Sketch to Paint
From these sketches, studies begin to take shape. I explore color, material, surface. What happens when a line becomes a layer, when a form translates into paint? What remains, what disappears, what changes in character?
This phase remains open. Not everything needs to lead somewhere immediately. Work can rest, return, be picked up again. I let it simmer. Sometimes in my studio, sometimes in our outdoor workspace on “the land.” There, I return to it while working outside, looking at it again with fresh eyes.
layering and texture
In painting, I always work in layers. An image does not appear in a single movement, but grows. Sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly.
At times, a work unfolds almost immediately, as if everything falls into place at once. At other times, the process needs more time. The image keeps shifting, searching, forming itself again.
Color and Composition
Feeling leads, but it is not the only guide. At the same time, I look at composition. How do forms relate to each other? What role does a discovered symbol take within the surface?
When a painting is finished
I do not always know immediately when a painting is finished. Sometimes I need to leave it alone for a while and look at it again later. At other times, there is a moment in which the image no longer asks, but is simply present.