2019 50th Anniversary Exhibition Artist Statement

OLD FLORESTA 2017

On Sept. 10th, 2017, Hurricane Irma barrel through my region of South Florida. We were all hunkered down at the office where we have generators and hurricane protection. I needed to keep the company working, so not only was my family there but all of our employees and their families, too. We had well over 300 people in two buildings. I was nervous with a lot of responsibility. Hurricanes are serious, but we turn them into parties. As the storm was on top of us we played some music and I made a drawing. I must have been watching TV or something cause the storm ended up in my drawing.

Most of the art I did in 2017 was related to music. Those pieces can easily speak for themselves. Notably, I invented a term to describe my live drawing style. I call it ‘Frenetic Drawing,’ the act of drawing rapidly while listening to loud music on a live stage. You will discover some great examples of this on the following pages.

I love painting. Anytime I can paint I am happy. I was at a convention in Las Vegas when I was offered to go painting for an afternoon in the desert. The offer came from an old friend from elementary school who I was able to keep in touch with using Facebook. He had no clue that I was a painter. I hadn’t seen him in over 40 years. It was great to catch up. I met him at his house and he showed me some of the Americana paintings he completed and also some wood he was curing for frames. That wood inspired me. It had an unfinished live edge complete with bark. When I got to the location to start painting I made an oil painting to match that wood, called Bonnie Springs. I’m not sure how I got it home cause it was wet, but when it dried I framed it using live-edge wood.

I took a class in Encaustic Painting in Boulder, Colorado. Encaustic means painting with wax. It is not easy to paint with wax and even harder to get sharp lines and shapes. In preparation, I did some research and discovered a way to use my laser printer to make line drawings that could be transferred to the wax. I printed the drawings in reverse and then dropped the paper on the hot wet wax. The fibers of the paper merged with the wax. Once it solidified, I used water to rub the pulp off leaving just the part I printed. It was easy and worked out great.

I got involved with The Plein-Air Club of Palm Beach. Plein-Air means to paint outdoors. The Plein-Air Magazine is produced near my home in Boca Raton. Florida is perfect for outside adventures as long as you drink lots of water and dress for the sun and heat. I stumbled upon something I call, ‘Highway Mountains’ and did a few modern landscapes. They are fascinating to me, visually showing speed. I did them using my Ipad Pro and Ipencil. Plein-Air traditionalists will not allow pieces like this to be called Plein-Air. I believe they are wrong and just don’t know how to use the tools.

I also did a Plein-Air Painting of a home in a historic area of Boca Raton called, Old Floresta. The piece came out ok, but I wasn’t satisfied. I went home and painted directly over it altering the concept into something I thought to be more pleasing. I turned the landscape into a circuit board. You are not allowed to do postwork on a Plein-Air Painting. Again I think they are wrong. I equate it to Bob Dylan playing electric guitar at the Newport Jazz Festival it was both outrageous and genius. We should be encouraging people, especially young people, to be creative and use whatever tools they prefer as long as they put their heart and soul into the result. I guess the bigger challenges come when a person takes a simple photo with their mobile phone and uses an app to make a 2-second adjustment and then calls it a Plein Air painting.

HURRICANE IRMA 2017

BONNIE SPRINGS 2017