Radical Impressionist: A Mathematician Paints

 I had completed several paintings of the Los Alamos Cliffs in my Turbulent Land, Land Abstraction and Land Fusion Series. A 15x25 panel with a Dynamic Symmetry Armature constructed on it had been waiting for me to do another version. I wanted to experiment with a few tools I now use, a squeegee and rubber foam shape among them - oh and yes, a trowel from the hardware store. Cliffs lend themselves to painting with straight edges.  Turbulent Lands ,  15x25, Third Place-Oil, 2024 Masterworks of New Mexico/RGAA  Previous Los Alamos Cliff Paintings: Turbulent Lands I , 12x16 Land Abstraction I , 8x13 Land Abstraction II, 8x16 Land Fusion , 15x25 Painting Steps without comment: : Continuing adjustments with the decision made to change the main focal point to the upper right rather than the upper left "polar point" (wait for each line to be drawn)

Golden Ratio Piedra Lumbre Piedra Lumbre II, 15x24, oil The Piedra Lumbre (shining stone) painting has a proportion that is approximately the golden ratio - or the golden mean, an irrational number, approximately 1.610287...., meaning continuing without end.  As an irrational number it cannot be expressed as a ratio of two integers.   I’ve done many paintings, with 10x16 dimension and a few at 15x24, and this 15x24, still with a ratio of 10/16 or 5/8. Note that these are two number in the Fibonacci sequence.  1,1,2,3,5,8, .... The radio of two consecutive numbers gets closer and closer to the golden mean as we progress through the sequence.  Try calculating:  5/3, 8/5/ 13/8, 21/13,... The golden mean is related to the golden spiral, a form found in nature everywhere since it in fact represents how growth takes form (think sunflowers, ferns, tree branches, Nautilus Shell). The ratio is thought to be the most pleasing to the eye, perhaps because it is so perv...

Award presented at the opening show for the 2016 Plein Air Artists of Colorado Annual Show at the Mary Williams Gallery in Boulder, Colorado. Santa Fe River Turbulence , 10x16, oil ( Santa Fe River Turbulence  now hangs in my son's home, chosen by the family as their favorite of my paintings at that time.)  The history of this painting began during a Mentoring Program by Albert Handell in June 2015. I pointed out that the Santa Fe River was running, and so we painted there twice during the week.  The location is on Alameda on the southeast side of the river a block from Delgado Street. What a great location when the water is flowing. I enjoyed sitting and standing, painting and listening to the water babble as it flowed over the rocks, watching the neighborhood children and dogs frolicking in the waves.  My first two "en plein air" studies were during this program.: "Santa Fe River Flows I", oil, 6x12" (sold) "Santa Fe River Flows II",...