Roses & Cauliflowers
R & C is an on-going Series of small mixed media paintings 12”x12” (30x30 cm) on linen.
This Series was started while I worked on large panels which require drying times in between the different layers and I did so working on the floor of my New York studio by using the left-over paint from the large ones.
As a subject I used single roses of which I happened to have number of photographs on my drawing desk which I had taken over time attracted by the architectural and sensual beauty of the flower.
Once I started I felt the need to add something else. I therefore added the cauliflower. It was maybe to do something less pretty or maybe because it sounded better or maybe both.
Working on these small panels with left over paint gave me a lot of freedom.
Different ways of working with paint got involved: from thin, meager, to impasto in acrylic, oil, sometimes with marble dust added or even tape, oil stick and pencils. They go from figurative to abstract, from gestural to geometrical, from thick to thin.
Very often when I finish a number of them, a small series, on the floor of my studio, I think I am done with them, but then it gives me another freedom, another way to approach this subject. They take me by surprise and a new series get started.
Sometimes in order to stimulate this freedom of doing, I abandon the idea of a rose or a cauliflower. Thinking it restricts me too much perhaps, that it confines me to these two plants but then, immediately, the work loses shape and quality and thus I return to the subject.
Eventually this freedom reflects onto the larger works. They absorb the different techniques I use for the small R & C.
This series also make me question ways of looking at painting and therefore I present them in different ways. Sometimes two by two, sometimes four together or single ones.
The way I look at them at the studio is from above, since they are displayed on the floor. When people come to visit I make them pay attention to the works as a garden and I ask them “not to trample the flowers”.
I drew some cabinets and had them manufactured specifically for this series. This way you can take them out as a book.
