My favorite painters have always been watercolorists, particularly John Marin. I first discovered Marin’s work at the Kennedy Gallery in New York City when I was working as a young editor at Harper and Row. When I started painting a few years ago, I emulated just about everything he had ever done, hoping to unlock the secrets behind his watery, loosely painted landscapes.
In this series of works including “Mountain Village,” shown here, I’ve returned to the techniques learned in emulating Marin. Working with highly diluted and transparent acrylic paints, I’ve applied some of the pigments wet-on-wet, allowing the colors to bleed. In other areas of the painting, I added layers of transparent pigments after each layer had dried. Like Marin, I’ve allowed some of the white of the canvas to show through. Unlike working with oil paints which can feel thick and heavy, I love the looseness and freshness of working in water-based media and the resulting prismatic effects.
Honeysuckle Clouds, Acrylic on canvas,
40 x 30
Sowi-ing Mana (Deer Maiden) Acrylic, collage on canvas, 18 x 14. See more of my Katsina Series on the Native Abstractions page.
Chalchiuhtlicue (Aztec)
3D sculpture of cast paper and bamboo on metal stand, 13 x 13 x 2 See more of these works on my "Native Abstractions" page.
Pueblo Village, oil on canvas, 20 x 20. See more of these works on Latest Works page.
Firecracker Cactus
Acrylic on canvas,
10 x 10, See more on the "Small Works" page.
Flower Moon 雪国
Collage, watercolor,
20 x 16, matted. See more Japanese-inspired works on my Asian Abstractions page.
San Geronimo Runners,
24 x 12. See more on Native Abstractions page.
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