Les Misérables
2012, 36 x 60 inches, acrylic and water on canvas

This I did as a tribute to Helen Frankenthaler after she died in late 2011. I love her work and her paintings introduced me to the Color Field movement. She’s known for staining raw (unprimed) canvas using turpentine and oil paint. I was trying to copy her use of large patches of color with intentional and unintentional mixing in order to create something that “looks as if it were born in a minute.” The goal is to create something that reflects the instantaneous mindset of the artist, avoiding over-thinking and over-working the canvas. As opposed to a painting by Jackson Pollock, for example, it’s supposed to be completely unemotional and look raw, natural, and organic.

Frankenthaler’s Mountains and Sea is one of my favorite paintings and got me to start thinking seriously about painting and about abstract art.

The color and blocking of this painting were based the play Les Misérables (stage managed by the illustrious Mollie Flanagan) I had seen that day. I painted it on my floor by pouring paint out of an olive oil dispenser, using stacks of books underneath the canvas to guide the paint and make it run and pool in different directions.

Detail