I’m not really big on all the conceptual stuff of painting, not that it’s not there in my work and probably more apparent to others, it’s just not what I like to consciously focus on. However, since I have been painting and drawing intensely and in earnest for the past few years, I have come to this one idea I want to explore more.

Since my paintings are developed from photographs or from on-site sketches using a photograph for reference I spend a lot of time comparing drawing and painting to photographs. Mostly I just think about how a photograph, mine specifically, tends to flatten the view terribly. I have also been exploring this other line of thinking about how to capture a what I see in full, something more than just a panorama. Then add in my most successful forays into collage along with a technique of “stitching” together a picture with a combination of on-site sketches and photographs I have employed once or twice before and viola! Here I am!

What I like about this is combining multiple perspectives but from one stationary location. Changing the view multiple times so that the horizon, the foreground and points in between are simultaneously in focus. Then figuring out how to blur the parts that don’t need to be in so much focus but are still defined enough that they work peripherally. This is how I tend to take in a scene anyway – constantly scanning, focusing, re-scanning, and re-focusing.

It seems to work, at least I have gotten many favorable comments. I’ll keep at it and see where it takes me.