IMAGES | STATEMENT | RESUME

In this recent collection of paintings, I have once again returned to the quietude of the New Mexico desert to lose myself in the stillness and spaciousness of my surroundings.
This comes after an extended period of working in the Philadelphia studio.
I begin again to peacefully dwell in this studio I refer to as the “womb of creation” of my experiences. It is here, where the collection of acquired imagery and inspirations gathered from my travels, begins to sort itself out.

This time, I am awakened to the natural element of Balance inherent in everything. Realized in our environment, in our society, in our minds and bodies, evidence of Balance is everywhere and at the core – even in the weather.

Natural balance is the foundation of the paintings, the starting point. The aliveness, stemming up from the core essence of balance, is constantly at work inside me just as it is in nature. It is constantly at work arranging imagery, suggesting color and texture, line, shape and form until it magically culminates in a visible, mental snapshot of perfect balance. I often find myself struggling with it with tightly held concepts and rigid thought content of what I believe is balance and what I believe is perfection.

In my mind, I am often working in elements of steel and wire, rope and mesh and other more organic elements , such as gravel or twigs. It is in the medium of paint, I am able to bend them, shape them and arrange them in a way that suggests the attributes of these materials, without the actual physical constraints of them. This is a process that has long since guided my own individual expression.

Rob Douglas
2009