Dialogues Within My Paintings

With my first painting of the fall season I am going to try to record the evolution of "Cat and Mouse." I have been thinking about doing a series of paintings with scenes from various rooms in my home. I consider my house a very large work of art and the way the rooms are designed reflects my artistic eye as well as my life.

Since I begin each day with my bathroom, this is a natural place to start. Looking around I decide on a tableau against one of the walls. There is a corner of one of my paintings, a mosaic table I made from a NYC cast off, a vase of flowers, an Art Nouveau lamp from my time in Belgium and a mirrored dressing table. I love all the shapes and each of the objects have a special meaning for me. I like the arrangement, but is there a painting here?

After several sketches, I take a photo one evening with light coming only from the lamp on the dressing table. Often dramatic lighting will enliven and begin the dialogue between the objects.

Voila! I see the beginning of a painting.

After noodling around with a small thumbnail sketch. I get excited as the shadow of the mosaic table and flowers looks like a crouching cat and the lamp has the personality of a saucy mouse. This is the dialogue that will inspire the rendering of the painting.

I prepare a 37" x 23" canvas and rough in the drawing and some color.

Wow! I realize the next morning that I actually have a small mouse on my dressing table. It is a Harry Potter mouse that someone gave me years ago and I forgot it was there. Is this destiny? I make a few sketches and try to integrate it into the painting.

This ultimately doesn't work because it complicates and disrupts the overall energy of the painting. After a few days of painting, I have a more complex series of color decisions figured out and the dialogue is progressing. Now I will let it rest and allow the under painting to dry so that I can work on top later without disturbing it.