Many times during the act of painting I am reminded of the well known pronouncement made in the 1890’s by artist Maurice Denis, “Remember that a painting—before being a battle horse, a female nude or some anecdote—is essentially a flat surface covered with colors assembled in a certain order.”
It is with this in mind that although the landscape as a subject holds immense personal meaning for me, in the context of painting, it is without distinction from any other chosen subject. What I mean is that the issues in creating a representational image are inherently the same. Denis points out that the artifice of painting—the manipulation of the pictorial elements to create illusion—is the key underlying a painting.
I begin my landscape paintings wanting to express a place, a time of day or quality of light. Through painting the landforms, aerial perspective, horizon and light, I find that my subject evolves. The subject then becomes about the orchestration of composition, shapes, the values of light and dark, the contrast and harmonies of color. The paint is merely dabs, streaks and gradations of color “assembled in a certain order.”