Wave Trough

This Original Oil Painting is created using multiple layers of paint, with an incorporated encaustic approach. The Image portrays a wave just about to crash. I spent many hours at the Atlantic Ocean while living in South Carolina for nine years, and I have always enjoyed watching the ocean. I have several sketches of the ocean, and from other oceans around the world in my travels. I plan on doing several more Ocean based Images.

Mitch

Parisian Rainy View

This original oil was created in 2003. I based this image upon my memories of my trips to Paris when I lived in Holland(2000-2001). In this scene the viewer is experiencing the view(including rain on the window, from my hotel room down to a street below. This Image has buildings in shade (blue) on the left side of the Image and moves up to the right at an angle which matched the street direction. The shapes in the lower right represent a small park with trees.


Mitch

Steel Pour #3 is the third painting in the series of re-visiting an older original idea. This Image is much larger than the previous two images, where it is 3 feet by 5 feet, and in Oil. My idea here was to add a layer of process to the image by relating it to a plan or idea in life.

When a person starts out on most challenges or projects, they have a clear idea of where the outcome is. This clear outcome is represented in the top of the Image with three large orange shapes. As the project begins it starts to take shape here represented with clear right angles and block shapes and forms. As the viewer moves down the painting the orange comes into a shape which goes off the page, on the mid upper left side.

The next portion of the image is where a split occurs. Two small vertical orange stripes show a flow from the larger shape above, however it is unclear if the orange is dropping down or flowing along a path. This optical illusion was created on purpose to challenge the viewer of what they have experienced in challenges in life: a drop or a flow.

Then at the bottom center two orange stripes drop down into an odd shape which appears to fracture(several new ideas) and flow away in a larger flow (idea).

Then in the bottom center right I created an optical illusion by "tucking" the orange shape behind the side of a pre-existing shape. However the effect again is a visual play and not possible in 3D space.

Then at the bottom right corner is the orange shape which appears to be isolated. In fact I created it to be flipped or upside down and flowing back into the original idea, showing that sometimes even when an idea has started and continued on a path, the idea comes back to the original idea or source and usually unexpected.

Mitch

Steel Pour was revisited along with the Utopia in this design, whereby I attempted to change the rules of traditional paintings.

Traditionally, Oil paintings are clean in design, hung in a frame to "match" the painting or in cases the interior design of a space where the painting will be hung. I wanted to create images where the most important part of the painting the brush strokes became the concentration.

I used Canvas, Masonite, Gesso, and a unfinished wooden frame(with store stickers in place) to create this Sculpture-painting.

I completed this Image in 2005 while I was completing my Masters Degree at Piedmont College in Demorest, GA.

This Steel Pour Design was based on my original pen & ink completed in 1991. This image differs by my application of a variety of materials and developed idea behind the image itself.

Mitch

In 2005 I was completing my Masters Degree of Art Education at Piedmont College in Demorest, Ga. One of the class I took was advanced painting. I wanted to re-visit some previous ideas I had in my earlier days as an Artist and develop these ideas into new creations.

My design was re-create the Utopia pen & ink, but with an approach outside of my comfort zone. I had a wide range of oils, pen & inks, sculpture in kind when I came up with this concept.

My concept was to create a work of art outside my comfort zone of clean and neat lines, clean and neat canvas construction and make the viewer look beyond the existing demand for fancy/ expensive framing.

Here is how I executed this plan. I used Masonite, Canvas and wood in a combination to create a sculpture which has the characteristics of a painting. However, the idea is to get to the heart of the matter and focus on that not the external ideas which in my opinion contradict the essence of art.

I wanted to make the viewer look past the frame, which in this case is unfinished wood, with stickers from store remaining. Look past the application of the canvas to the Masonite, here a canvas stretched onto the Masonite and left raw with strings and rough edges. Then finally the paint, a loose interpretation of the original image but modified enough to be original, yet similar enough to be considered part of a continuing theme.

I have watched people look at the image and see past all the wood, Masonite and strings and reveal that they too were more intent on the brush stroke of the painting and not the frame it was placed in. Therefore, if people are able to look past the extremities, and focus on the image they are able to step into the "shoes" of the artist and make the connection the artist was trying to make. Which in my opinion is what the essence of Art is.

Mitch

This Pen & Ink is a more recent(2005) version of the Original Uptopia(1989). This was my demonstration to my students when I was teaching them two-point perspective. This image was drawn by hand with pencil on a light blue paper and then inked. Several shapes and forms exist in this image to create depth and texture.

Many shapes resemble letters and numbers, and architectural features. My design for this was to continue the Utopia theme from 1989, but as with the oils, apply more of my experience.

I plan on continuing this theme with several more art projects including sculpture.

Mitch

Steel Pour

In 1989 I created this Image along with several other pen & inks after purchasing a set of inks. My idea of the steel pour came from the arrangement of angles and how liquids flow.

I have always liked the combination of complimentary colors Blue and Orange and found the contrast to support my idea of Molten hot metal in a cool container. My arrangement with the anlges came from my back ground in Drafting and Art in High School.

Since 1989 I have created two other images based upon this one. Both are created in oils and are larger in scale. These two newer images were created in 2005 during my Master of Art Education Degree. My focus for these two completed paintings were to re-visit successful images made previously in my career, but to then apply knowledge and experience I had learned since then.

One variation to this original is that I placed more time in the application of color theme, and story behind the image. I also used a variety of materials for the other two images.

Mitch