My current paintings are using the photographs of Carleton Watkins as source material. I’m drawn to an image for it’s qualities in form and texture, as well as a sense of place and time. When selecting what to paint, I’m not necessarily painting the entire photo. I purposely make the work as ambiguous as possible. I start by cropping the images from the original photos. Once this is transcribed to the painting surface, I begin by applying gestural paint strokes to the picture plane to create paintings that border between representational and abstraction. At times I will emphasize elements of the image by painting it either solid white or black. At other times I will isolate an individual subject such as a rock formation or a waterfall for its formal elements.
When I’m walking through a forest or a desert or any other type of landscape, I see it as traveling in time. Not only is one transported to another time period when viewing old photos, but the same could be said as if you were amongst nature itself. I’m drawn to Carleton Watkins work because of this feeling of being transported to a different time and place. Not only does my work reference landscape painting, but also abstraction in some ways.