Paintings

Some secrets lie hidden until a certain convergence of time and experience bring them to light.  In the method astronomers use, looking into the telescope, in order to receive the clearest image of a star, the gaze must shift ever so slightly away from center. Something analogous to this happens in the practice of art-making. For me this “averted vision” has meant the interval of a day away from the studio or even the passage of several years.

A great deal of studio time over the last years has been given to a re-examination of works which, at the time, seemed highly promising at their inception but which persistently avoided being brought to any satisfactory conclusion. Eventually I came to see what specific modifications were required. It was then, of course, impossible to leave these works unattended.
  
Painting in oils allows time to be taken in the contemplation of the work at whatever stage in its development and there is rarely a point at which the work cannot be brought into a desired state of harmonious conclusion. Paint can be laid in and it can be scraped off.  Of late I have had the curious notion that if, say, I have the capacity to see that something is lacking in a painting, then it follows that I have that very same capacity to set things right. I have found some comfort and confidence in this.

You will see in this exhibition works that were started, in some cases, thirty years ago.  Some were done last month. You may, upon observation, sense a specific vision with which they began and now, what it might be that makes them complete