Studio Notes

“A studio is a laboratory, not a factory. An exhibit is the result of your experiments, but the process is never-ending.” -Chris Ofili-

Toward the end of last year, I began a series of paintings based on Brice Creek at Creekside Park here in New Bern. I have always been fascinated with painting water and at Brice Creek I found inspiration with the river and its reflections on the water as it moves through the landscape. Shifting patterns of light and shadow are ever changing with the flow of the water.

With some of the paintings I took a wider view of the river, while with others I focused on those quiet places along the shore at the water’s edge.

I began the Creekside series with quick sketches in acrylic on paper that I cropped for an abstracted composition and placed in a sketchbook. 

Some of the sketches were collaged together to create more abstract compositions.

From those I chose six to work into larger canvas paintings. I wanted to retain the spontaneity of the sketches as I planned the larger paintings. Keeping to a limited palette I allowed strong contrast and expressive marks define the space, building up color in layers adds to the surface interest. The image above shows the original sketch, an early stage of the painting, the finished painting, and a detail from the painting.

Here are all six canvas paintings in the Creekside collection. Meant to stand alone, I do enjoy the way they flow together telling a story about the river.

However, at this point I didn’t feel quite ready to let go of the Creekside theme. So next I prepared six small panels with a bright yellow/orange ground. Working intuitively this time, I built up layers with contrasting marks, and even some crayon marks, continuing to add color in layers along with textured marks. It was only towards the end of this process that I addressed each panel individually to bring them to a finished state.

All the paintings in the Creekside collection were created with the intent to express the experience of being there beside this slow, meandering waterway, with shifting light and shadows creating dancing reflections on the water’s surface.

You can visit the entire Creekside collection on my website.

I hope you enjoyed this peek into my studio!

Until next time...

Thank you for reading!

Stay safe and well and creative!