I don't have a plan per se when I start a painting. Sure, I do studies and collages but I'm looking for a place that looks like a feeling I have in gut. I don't really know what that looks like in the beginning.
When the piece starts to feel "right" I get a sense of closing in on it. Using different methods for getting there I don't have complete confidence I've arrived until the painting I'm looking at gives me a certain jolt.
Doing a series is more of that same process. I'll finish a painting that doesn't look like the past 10 or fifteen and think, "where the hell did you come from?" and go on to paint something else.
Usually, after a while, another will follow that looks like it's related to the last, it's there, certain similarities start to make themselves apparent.
"Family Portrait" Acrylic on cradled wood panel
"Family Portrait" was one of those paintings about a group of people that made me look back at "Meeting" quite differently.
The amorphous, dreamlike landscape and the tension between the figures made me understand it was a new suite of paintings. These described the emotional space around a sole being or between a group. Some of the quasi-human like forms might be relatives, lovers or opponents.
"Meeting" Acrylic on Canvas
"Hapless Thing" Acrylic on Canvas
I suppose there's a bit of alienation that all the figures seem to carry. Maybe a bit more with "Hapless Thing". Stumbling around blind on three legs, I feel sorry for it.