acrylic on art board, 11.5"w x 11.5"h
“Red Tide” will be exhibited the RAA&M National Show 2023
Red tide is a natural phenomenon. It occurs in large bodies of water, which I've seen in photographs, like aerial photographs.
A red tide can be an ugly, toxic mess of greens and browns, or it can be extremely beautiful and colorful.
I get a lot of inspiration from seeing photographs of landscapes and seascapes from above. I love to study NASA photographs of different parts of the earth, the Moon or Mars, and other planets.
Looking at these subjects from a different perspective, unlike when you're on the road and look across and see mountains and forests, you see the plains that you're familiar with, and it all makes sense. It all follows what you know.
But you can find an abstract perspective when you look at something from above. So maybe that's my draw to abstract expressionism—that you're looking at things from a different perspective from a different viewpoint.
I've seen photographs of red tides from aerial views, and in some cases, they look pretty muddy and unimpressive. But at times, there are some really beautiful things going on.
Maybe it's a time of the day when a photographer shoots the image that makes the difference.
At times, a red tide can look beautiful with different colors running into each other in this liquid mass, even though it's a very toxic natural phenomenon.
The colors I use for this painting may exaggerate what I've seen in photographs of red tides.
And they don't necessarily represent red tide per se.
Sometimes you render things because of how they make you feel rather than trying to be exact. I used the colors and the pressure I applied with the tools to get the effect that I created this piece.
So, this painting is an interpretation of images I've seen of a red tide. It is extremely difficult to get the colors to work with one another and to get the kind of motion this painting has.
And it's just difficult to explain.
The pieces are created with paint in motion, and sometimes the paint goes in the direction you want it to.
And sometimes it doesn't. But, in this case, I got very close to the perfect execution of it.
I remember feeling that I had something pretty special when I was done with that.
I was pretty stunned when I saw the result, and I knew immediately that I had something.
And that doesn't always happen. So, when it does happen, as in this case, you feel like you had a successful day.
If you have one of those in one day, it's a very successful day.
It's tough to do because I've tried to get, get a similar effect and have not been able to repeat it, although in experimenting, I've achieved other different successful paintings.
But, you know, that's part of the fun of experimenting with paint.
And, with this one, with Red Tide, I felt that this painting had come off very successfully at the end of the day.