PASO A PASO, TONALISM IN TUSCANY 2023.
In September I followed a five-day course in tonalist painting taught by Justin T. Worrell. Justin’s method teaches quick decisive strokes. His values skew, for the most part, to the extreme ends of the tonal scale. His results are evocative and compelling. As his student, I did my best to follow his method step by step. I was very surprised at the difference his instruction made to my work. Thank you, Justin!

ABSTRACTS AND ABSTRACTED REALITIES, WINTER AND SPRING 2023.
The winter and spring saw another period of artistic growth, punctuated by brief moments of holding back, holding on, and not daring to push myself into new territory.

ABSTRACTS, WINTER 2023.

ABSTRACTED LANDSCAPES, WINTER 2023.
Cold wax and oil over acrylic with oil stick .

IMAGINED LANDSCAPES, WINTER 2022.
Acrylic, cold wax, oil, and crayon on canvas, both images are 20 x 24”. They represent my imagined hikes through the hills of western Sonoma County.

QUICK SKETCHES, OCTOBER 2022
Mixed media on archival paper. As can be seen in the sketches below, I have begun to experiment with asemic writing. Some artists employ asemic writing as pure shape. Similarly, a poet might use asemic writing as a sort of Dada version of verse. I see asemic writing as a way of indicating a spiritual, perhaps transcendental presence. It can also be understood as symbolizing an element of the image which cannot be pictured — such as a fragrance or a breeze.

Asemic. The word asemic /eɪˈsiːmɪk/ means "having no specific semantic content", or "without the smallest unit of meaning".[4] With the non-specificity of asemic writing there comes a vacuum of meaning, which is left for the reader to fill in and interpret. All of this is similar to the way one would deduce meaning from an abstract work of art. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asemic_writing)

ABSTRACTED LANDSCAPES, 2022
The most recent works are acrylic underpainting finished with cold wax and oil. I sometimes carve into the thick paint, or add lines with charcoal or crayon. In these paintings I’ve returned to the ideas explored in earlier work — emotional, spiritual, or physical journey and the pathways they carve into our lives.

CASTING ABOUT, 2021 and 2022
In the later months of the pandemic I began casting about for a “new direction” for my paintings. I tried on the styles of various contemporary painters, and soon put the attempted imitations aside. The paintings of this short period were interesting, some are even very nice. I certainly learned a good deal, but they left me uneasy as I believe painting should communicate the ideas of the creator, not imitate the style of another.

MIXED MEDIA PAINTINGS: TRIPTYCHS FROM THE DAYS OF PANDEMIC.
The triptychs were imagined during the winter months of the first Covid lockdown in early 2021. The inspiration for individual triptychs is drawn from books of ancient wisdom and/or contemporary literature. The thread linking the triptychs is the idea of a journey — the spiritual or mental aspects of this idea are indicated in the titles of the paintings.

The triptychs in this series are mixed media, and vary in size from 12 x 36” to 16 x 48” total size. The paintings are available for sale. Please email for further information. tascafineart@gmail.com