Old Monrovia Gas Pump

15"x10" oil on masonite panel ••• I have hesitated showing you this painting before, not because of the painting itself, but because of the photograph of the painting. You see, this piece was "professionally" photographed and I had not come to terms with that, until today. So here it is. • Whenever I am lucky enough to discuss my paintings with the poor suffering photographer, we often disagree on the outcome, but we almost always find common ground on what it took to achieve that outcome. Our mutual whine isn't about the peaks and valleys of my carvings—they usually can be overcome with good lighting and the use of cross filtering and a subtle voodoo chant (or two). No, our communal angst is focused on my color work. There is always a sentence in our discussion that resembles this: "Man, I love your work, but your @#$%& colors drove me nuts!" To which I respond with a hearty, "Thank you!" ••• Color experimentation is integral to what I do. A result of this push-pull—especially clashing my warms and cools together against their will—is that some of my color mixing has become simplified. Sometimes a color that might have included 5 to 6 members on my palette, may now be made up of only 2 to 4. This usually increases the fight, making it harder to achieve whatever my addled brain is trying to achieve. • The painting above may not be the best example of the following, but if you ever see me refer to "sweet" colors, simplified color mixing is often what I am talking about. The purer the color is from the tube, the sweeter it is. I guess sweet is my lazy term for intensity. Or, it could just be me thinking about cookies.

Posted June 30, 2015