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Things are as they are. Looking out into it the universe at night, we make no comparisons between right and wrong stars, nor between well and badly arranged constellations.
—Alan Watts
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I wasn’t planning on showing this newer painting for a while. But I came across this lovely piece of music and this painting seemed to pair perfectly with it, at least to my eyes and ears.
The painting is an 18″ by 36′ canvas that I call Starmap and is part of my annual show at the Principle Gallery in Alexandria which opens June 1.
I have been working on a series of paintings like this, with blocks of color making up the sky and stars as points of light showing at the intersections of these blocks. I love working on these pieces. They require an emptying of the mind with a focus solely on what is before you. There’s this interesting sense of constant problem solving that bounces from making each form correctly and balancing that form within the whole composition. I continually go back and forth from tight focus to wide focus.
I probably can’t properly explain it but for me, it is an exhilarating process as each added form and layer of color, each poke of light from the stars, subtly transforms the piece into something more than I was expecting. It feels more complete and full than the first thoughts and brushstrokes that initiated the painting, leaving me with a giddy kind of satisfaction. I know that this has been the case thus far with each of the paintings in this series.
Now for this Sunday morning music, I thought this wonderful piece, Nocturne, from young Hungarian guitarist Zsófia Boros paired up beautifully with the feeling that this piece creates for myself. I’ve listened to it several times this morning and it just seems right.
Give a listen and have a great Sunday.
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Redtree Times 
That’s a marvelous sky. I like the one in the sidebar, too. In fact, this sky is one of my favorite “parts” of your paintings: like the underground layers of the archaeology series. It’s complemented beautifully by the various kinds of ripples and waves you’ve paired it with.
And, as a bit of unexpected pleasure, it reminds me of the ‘stained glass windows’ we used to make with colored cellophane when I was a kid, taping the pieces to the windows of the house and being awed by the light shining through.
Thanks, Linda. It definitely has a stained glass feel. I never did the cellophane on the windows thing as a kid but I was attracted to the color and light from stained glass windows from early on.
Simply stunning!!!
Thanks, Dec.
Another beautiful stained glass wannabe… This whole series just calls out for a glass artist to interpret the images in another medium.
“A giddy kind of satisfaction,” indeed! I have owned one of your paintings for years and have followed your blog and seen many of your paintings at the West End Gallery. I can’t think of anything you have done that captivates me like this new work. It seems so perfectly balanced and peaceful, and yet at the same time, so alive! Wonderful
Thanks for those kind words, Gary. I am heartened by your response to this new work.