Surface Language
An exploration of texture, relief, and atmosphere - Surface Language is a series of richly textured paintings in which the paint itself does the speaking. With these paintings, I let the surface speak. I work with a palette knife and a generous amount of paint, pushing and layering until the canvas takes on a life of its own: sometimes calm and banded like a horizon, sometimes restless and full of movement. The earliest pieces were oil, and they took forever to dry so I set out to get the same depth in acrylic. People often tell me they want to touch these paintings, and I understand the impulse. The texture is the language. Every ridge and peak records a gesture, a moment of pressure or release. There is no imagery to decode here, only gesture, color, and touch. Each mark records the pressure of the hand and the direction of the knife, creating a vocabulary of texture that shifts with the light throughout the day. Sculptural and serene, these paintings invite the viewer to read them slowly, the way you'd run a hand across a surface to understand it.
