More old paintings, circa 1995

Grey still life (1995), 24x28in.

Backyard (1995), 24x28in.

Night car (1995), 20x24in.

Tulips (1995), 24x20in.

House (1995), 24x28in.

All these are oil on canvas, painted not long after grad school, working through some of the de Kooning and Diebenkorn influences, but also starting to look toward more traditional, perception-based paintings, strongly influenced by my job as a guard at the Metropolitan. In particular, there was a huge and beautiful show there, Origins of Impressionism, which focused on the early work of the French Impressionists, and which would lead me to spend a few years painting outdoors and from still lifes in the studio, working toward toward a clarity of light and color and a directness of technique. Examples of that stuff to come, too.

With these, the landscapes are done from memory or imagination, the still lifes from direct observation. The grey still life was especially a response to the still lifes in the Origins show, while the tulips, which are now in my mother's house, was more a synthesis of observation and abex technique. The house an example of that, too, strongly influenced by de Kooning's so-called highway paintings of the fifties. The car more of a mood piece, and the backyard from a strong childhood memory. The backyard painting is in a private collection in San Francisco, the house in a private collection in Colorado, and the grey still life was used as a promotional poster for an arts series at my undergraduate school, Wittenberg University.