Balboa 60" x 60" mixed media on canvas
Coronado 60" x 60" mixed media on canvas
I make it a point to rush into my studio the day after coming home from any trip. I find that painting based on fresh recall is exciting as it reveals colour and feeling still vivid in my mind.
Such is the case for the pieces completed after an August excursion to Southern California. I was there on business, but in Palm Springs, Laguna and La Jolla, one cannot help but mix business with pleasure. I hadn't been to this part of the state prior, although I had derived plenty of inspiration from previous visits to the Golden State.
The titles of the 60x60 canvases (Balboa, Coronado) are all too familiar as they are prominentin San Diego. The colour and textures in the canvases are as I bring them into focus in my mind's eye after the fact. The landscape and structures within it have been deconstructed to expose my abstract truth. If you've been, you probably, but not necessarily better understand the "language of the paintings".
There is plenty of fodder for the initiation of a fresh batch of Icons in Southern Cal (Frank Sinatra, Elvis in Palm Springs, and Marilyn in Coronado where "Some Like It Hot" was filmed), and so stay tuned, but the first pieces to come out of that jaunt are large abstracts.
Perhaps the true star of California will always be its geography. It can be hurt by, but never overshadowed by anything man attempts to throw at it. This is especially clear from the summit of Mount San Jacinto.
Balboa, 60x60 mixed media on canvas, and Coronado, 60x60 mixed media on canvas, 2017