Clay Vorhes Exhibition

Currently I am working on a series of mountainscapes which encapsulate a conglomoration of every influence I could think of. I began with a combination of real and invented forms with an emphasis on how best I can make use of the picture plane. Eastern landscape scrolls heavily influenced the compositions. Once form was established, I turned to the problems of spacial systems asking myself "how can I exploit the extremes of verticality yet stabilize the composition?" Soutine was a master at this. I also asked myself "How can I take a flat reading of Matisse-like space and simultaneously incorporate depth to confuse the reading of space, yet still making the optical effect work credibly?" Diebenkorn worked in this fashion, searching for abstract patterns in landscape. There is also an investigation into multiple size and scale schemes within a singular region, incorporating different projective systems. Next came rythym, and a distilling of time and place. I tried to put everything in and still make the painting credible-- fast, slow, starts and stops, highs and lows, quick bush strokes melding with slow dragging ones, etc. Although I try to incorporate the abstract where I can get away with it, I paint in a realist manner dealing with traditional painterly problems, i.e.: light and shadow, form, color, tone, time, rythym, perspective, etc.