A looseness in both his landscape and portraiture enters
a dreamscape of memory, like looking to the past with
rose-tinted glasses. Soft subjects allow the brain to fill in
the details, apparent in many of his depictions of down-town
Wilmington including The Downtown Window, Morning
Mooring and Evening Reflections. His portraiture puts a
defined subject against breezy, flowing backgrounds of
warm earth tones, like in Glowing, which received a ribbon at
the 2016 Azalea Festival Art Show. He releases strict details
by going over the painting with a spray bottle filled with
mineral spirits.
“I heard an artist make an interesting observation once. He
stated that portraiture was good for a landscape artist to do, to
keep your drawing skills sharp,” he says. “It is true, you can get
away with not rendering a tree exactly like it is in life, but the
shapes that make up a person’s face must be captured very
closely to capture a likeness. However, there is so much infor-mation
in a landscape, one must edit out much of the unnec-essary
detail. Simplification is also important in portraiture.”
Evening Reflections, 30 x The Downtown Window, 24 x 24 inches, oil on panel. 18 inches, oil on panel.
Morning Mooring, 12 x 36 inches, oil on canvas.
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WBM
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