Contemporary Fine Art & Original Prints | ebo Gallery

As John explains it, “painting is about paint. Color, texture, the joy of putting it on or scraping it off. The results are best served by keen and repeated viewing. My painting is about surface primarily. Surface is feeling – it can be ambivalent. It gives the illusion of depth and reflection, of time and memory and complexity.

I try to introduce elements that are hidden or apparent, that will encourage “reading” the paintings many times and constantly discovering something new. I find myself using different materials such as copper or lead (materials from the earth, as is paint), which may also change continually over time. I especially like beeswax (which in many ways is just the opposite in terms of its durability and permanence) and for its wonderful ability to be opaque or transparent.

I am now experimenting with pictures that are not confined by borders, perhaps a bit more sculptural than my earlier work, as well as working within a two dimensional format.

I prefer imagined sites rather than actual landscapes. I incorporate crossroads, paths taken or not taken, suggestions and intimations of the past and the future. Windows, portals, exits and entrances are subjects that inspire me. Materials that age, rust, decay and change are, for me, the elements of birth and survival. I am enthralled with the kivas of the Southwest; holy, dark, private places central to the Native Americans. I am drawn to this image, of places from which we emerge and to which we inevitably return.

Above all, I love the PROCESS of making a picture – revealing parts of myself that might be a mystery to me. I love the smells, textures, endless decisions and accidents that come from the paints, the wax, the wood, the cloth, the copper, and the lead that seem to be consistent with my purpose, my aesthetic. It does not matter whether the work is figurative, sites, or non-objective. Subject matter is incidental to the process which I hope communicates on some level with the viewer.

The making of art is a sensual endeavor, and all the better if it speaks to the observer. What greater success than that?

Some of my “parents” are Richard Diebenkorn; Nathan Oliveira; Manuel Neri; Anthony Gormley; Elaine Anthony; and Judith Streeter.”