About Art
I have been making art since I can remember. I have always enjoyed making things and I have been a self employed artist making jewelry and buckles for men and women since the 80's. However since being reintroduced to painting in 1998 my goal has been to be a full-time painter. Painting, for me, is a chance to explore alternate views of reality through the process of manipulating art supplies with tools. I want to express the way the land and sky are shaped by light and the way reflections describe the surface of water. I don't always try to represent a particular place. Mood and atmosphere are more important. My intention is to encourage the viewer to daydream, to remember, to invent a story. The idea is to communicate a sensation of a beautiful or interesting place that creates or brings back memories. The composition, light, atmosphere and texture, all help to set the mood and tell the story. Working on location and from life sketches allows me to study composition, atmosphere and tonal values, and make paintings that become more than a picture of a subject. Natural scenes are a starting point for depicting a range of emotions using observed values, color themes, and compositions. Trees, woods, mountains, beaches and any body of water and the human figure are all ingredients for making interesting paintings. The light and weather tell the story and spark my imagination. The design and feeling of a landscape or figurative painting often start with sketches in charcoal and chalk, or water media and pencils on toned paper. Studio abstracts can evolve from finding design in the spontaneous application of paint or careful planning based on sketches and sometimes reference photos. All my paintings seem to end up as landscapes. I use both oils, or water media. Paint is applied on canvas, watercolor paper, or prepared wood panels with brushes, palette knives, improvised tools and sometimes bare hands using techniques from thin washes and glazes, to spattering and thick impasto. Finished paintings are protected with varnish. You can follow my painting on all the social media platforms, Etsy, and my website under the name Art For Pete Sake