Oil paint & Coldwax Medium are tactile and versatile materials. The artist is able to juxtapose the sheer and the opaque in their use. The artist is also able to incorporate a wide range of mixed media throughout.

Through layering, I explore colors, and how they relate and interact with one another. As successive layers are built up, a rich and complex history develops. Think painting then scraping away. And specifically, doing this repeatedly, until a finished piece evolves and emerges.

In revealing bits of previous layers, hints of underlying color often emerge in areas dominated by contrasting colors. This adds excitement and harmony, along with surprise.

I enjoy the fact, that coldwax is responsive to the use of many tool types. In the search for unique tools, I feel encouraged and challenged in thinking abstractly. There is a bit of the unknowable in the entire process. As such, rules leave room for intuitive painting.

Concept and subject are equally important. Therefore process, methodology, and thinking, are as important as materials. I like to explore internal tensions in artmaking. Subsequently, the difficulty I find in allowing the process to unfold without a detailed plan is interesting. For example, the ability to arrive in a restful mind-state with the unknown poses a challenge.

Through additive and subtractive techniques, I continue to build, cover, and reveal as I work. Indeed, in Oil Paint & Coldwax Medium, the final painting is seldom predictable in the early layers. In fact, those might disappear almost entirely. But creative decisions and actions do become more deliberate as completion nears. And in late stages, there are areas I preserve. But there is always a constant back and forth. Putting paint on, taking it off, putting paint on, etc. Interspersed throughout, are marks made using R&F pigment sticks.