Once again, the  South of France beckons.  Time to close the studio doors and  and go paint/hang out at Montfaucon in the village of  Limeux.  The Langdoc region will be beautiful this time of year.  Not too hot but the light will be grand. 

After ten days of plein air painting, I will fly to Florence to catch up with some friends there.  We will travel together in Tuscany and Rome for a week, spend a few days in Rome and I will fly home.  

Last Summer, suddenly there were thes goegeous peonies in the garden.  I past them on the way to my studio and resisted the temptation to steal just one.  Not my garden but the garden of our condominium... I resolved to photograph them at least.  

The next day when I went to photograph them, it had rained heavily during the night and the heads were heavy with the weight of the rain.  But, the colours were even better in the soft morning light.  I could just see them painted in drippy encaustic.  

 Some notes on the History of Encaustic.

More often than not people react to my work through colour and colour relationships and the comment I hear most often is about colour and the emotional effect.  This summer people have been gravitating to the small single sculptures of fruits and vegetables where I have kept the shapes clearly abstacted and the glazes intense.  They are forming their own compositions of several pieces and colours for their counter tops and shelves.  Glazed ceramics look wonderful on granite countertops.  The two materials really love each other.

Is your work realistic or abstract?  Good question!

The content or subject matter of my work has usually been recognizable although it has frequently drifted to a more abstract expression so I guess it falls somewhere in between.  The elements of colour, shape and texture form relationships that can move freely in and out of degrees of abstraction and realism.  So while strongly referential, my work is dominated by an aesthetic of shapes, movement and colour relationships.  Content just falls into second place.

It rather goes without saying that I am not a dedicated blogger. Where to start? Should I write about the work? How about the process? Explain my choices, my materials, my imagery?

My newly updated web site has been created by the great development team over at Tugboat Media.  "Blogging" is new to me but I am planning to frequently update with news, new work and of course information on the various media I use.  Check back again soon.