Open Skys and Abstract clouds

“Look Above the City” oil, gold and silver leaf on wood 24”x36”

moving from florals to exploring the sky + why

Can you even really make clouds abstract?

I mean, aren’t they already?

Iv’e been playing with landscapes recently (as seen here, and here, and here) and it’s been somewhat of a departure for me. A departure in the sense that it feels dramatically different than floral, and I feel a bit like a newbie.
Like a first date, where you say a few awkward things and are pretty sure it’s going well but then also not totally sure and within the span of the evening start wondering if maybe actually it went terribly? It’s a comfort level thing, and for the past four years I have been painting almost exclusively floral. obsessively. enthusiastically. floral. Some artists move from subject to subject and I would agree that is a great way to improve your vocabulary as an artist, but I just wanted to do the same subject over and over again until I felt I had thoroughly mastered it. And I feel like I know my flowers in and out. And though they still have much to say to me, it feels less urgent. When I felt my attention drifting from the florals to the marks I was making in their backgrounds, I felt ready to see how the sky and I would dance.

In the end I think it’s been a vehicle for expressive mark making and abstraction. After all, who says clouds don’t look like that? There has been freedom for me in the feeling of boldness that a vast open sky imparts. With the way you can look forever up, and it is still open, and the clouds are still big, and bigger and ever changing, comes a certain boldness to make a mark and leave it. To let the paint say a few things and get lost a but in the play of color and contrast.

I do look forward to being in the cozy stage of the cloud relationship, but for now I am enjoying the getting to know you phase and am delighted at each new discover of play.