Interior

Sometimes a painting is mostly about color. I find yellow in combination with others to be the most challenging. These also hint at the question (an ever present question), where is the viewer in the space?

Interior with Stairwell Rug, 2026
oil on canvas
30 x 24 inches
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Sloped Interior with Pit Rug, 2026
oil on canvas
30 x 24 inches
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Candy Apple Red Interior with Peach, 2026
oil on canvas
30 x 24 inches
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With these two paintings I used the process of converting the orientation of the paintings composition (vertical first, then horizontal). The concepts are sill the same, with the distance between chair entities. The floor is a shifting and shattering design.

Interior with Chasm and Shifting Floor, 2024-25
acrylic on canvas
30 x 24 inches

The rendering of the chairs is comparing a sharp, linear feel with a softer, rounder design.
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Interior with Nested Chairs and Chasm, 2024-25
acrylic on canvas
30 x 40 inches

Chairs trying to occupy the same space.
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Interior with Two Illusional Rugs, 2025
oil on canvas
30 x 24 inches

The sense of looking down while simultaneously looking in has intrigued me for quite some time. With its scale shift from a large, low, close up view to distant above view, helps to create a confounded sense of spatial context.
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Calm Interior with Imploding Rug, 2024
acrylic on canvas
24 x 18 inches

This quick painting is devoid of a chair (in the ‘main space), having a carpet that seems to be sucking everything in.
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Interior with Mildly Tortured Pink Chair, 2025
acrylic and oil on canvas
30 x 24 inches

In reflecting on our political climate, this chair painting conveys a sense of being worn and beaten. Rough and maybe even slightly slimy.

Drawing is half the battle. I thought that it would be interesting to try a process of flipping a composition as a starting point, partly as a shortcut and to see if the composition ‘works’. I also wanted to try some ‘faster’ process using acrylic paint, so starting with a smaller scale, working out a sketch using acrylic and then flipping it on a larger painting for oil. Of course I let it evolve and diverge some (or rather a lot), and then let the painting aspects of color schemes and later discovery processes play out. Here are a couple of experiments…

Some swings of color and a bit of terror…

Interior with Mismatched Furniture, 2024
acrylic on canvas
24 x 18 inches
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This painting I felt a need for a jarring aspect. The color has a harsh transition between top and bottom, and the chairs can’t seem to be on the same plane. It coincided with the 2024 election, and for this reason I will let it be as uncomfortable as it is.

Interior with Mismatched Furniture and Floor, 2024
oil on canvas
40 x 30 inches
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In these two I decided to simplify the color schemes, and let the perspective twist do its thing.

Red and Pink Interior with Gentle Shifting, 2024
acrylic on canvas
24 x 18 inches
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Interior Beginning to Twist, 2024
oil on canvas
40 x 30 inches
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Chairs are really a placeholder for a person. While empty, I imagine they might have a life of their own in which they converse with or comment on their environment. Sometimes the art on the wall says more about the space than the room itself.

Interior Contemplating a Square, 2024
oil on canvas
30 x 24 inches
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Interior with Pink Chair and Landscape, 2024
acrylic on canvas
24 x 18 inches
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Having a construct (the set of symbols and general sense of how the painting plays out) allows for a separation of ideas.
In this painting, I decided to limit the colors on my palette, and strip out the ornamentation of pattern. I was on the fence with this piece, but it has grown on me. It feels soft, but also slightly eerie.

Quiet Interior without Embellishments, 2023
oil on canvas
40 x 30 inches
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This painting makes me laugh. The inset painting of a person on a horse (all made up) is a bit ridiculous, as is the large, fleshy pink form of the rug. To me it looks like a tongue or a slab of processed meat. The dark form at the top is a ceiling shape, twisting off of the walls perhaps.

The Somewhat Humorous Interior, 2024
oil on canvas
40 x 30 inches
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Another clash of color, and a slippery warped floor on which the chair seems about to slide. This painting will benefit from a frame soon.

Interior with Warped Rug, 2024
oil on canvas
40 x 30 inches
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Stripping the chair from the image allowed me to explore just the relationships between wall, floor, and ceiling. I kept the painting within the painting, as that allows me the opportunity to add some content to the image and discover possible meaning.

The juxtaposition of paintings on the wall started as a conflict between vertical and horizontal layouts. The image an 18th century puffed up nobleman with medals, and a reclining nude (originally painted as soft porn for the men of the era) seems rich in the possibility of interpretations, which of course I’ll leave to the viewer.

Room with Competing Pomposities, 2024
oil on canvas
30 x 24 inches
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The perspective grid on the floor seems to feel like it is sinking, or sliding down. The wall treatment of thick and brushy work evokes a storm, and the inset painting of a sailboat makes the painting a depiction of impending doom… a possible shipwreck.

Room with Potential Shipwreck, 2024
oil on canvas
30 x 24 inches
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