“Still Life With Its Own Secret”
acrylic latex, charcoal on sailcloth
36” x 50”
May 28, 1994

 

In mid 1994, while I was busy working on my line abstracts series, I got some books on Matisse and Gauguin. This led me to became interested in doing interiors and still life paintings. I launched into experimenting with my own take on interiors and still life paintings that late Spring.

The frame for this painting is two silkscreen frames nailed together with sailcloth stretched across the frames. I layered more sailcloth, adhered to the background with paint, to create the table, the fruit and the red doorway in the background.

When I painted this I was deeply interested in where the edges of paint came together… the space between the painted areas and the open space. I wanted the painting to breathe, so to speak.

Many of my influences can be seen in this one piece – Mark Rothko, Richard Diebenkorn, Larry Rivers, Picasso, Matisse… at least I see that when I look at this painting.

In the creation of this piece the table covered up something I had painted on the canvas – I don’t even remember what… and that is its own secret.

We still own this one.