Exploring the New Season in Color
a journey of evolution
Each new season carries its own kind of energy; sometimes quiet, sometimes restless, sometimes full of possibility. Fall has me feeling a pull toward working with color in a way that is more about pure sensation. I find myself drawn to the expansiveness of color field painting—a practice of creating large swaths of color that hold emotion, vibration, and presence without needing to “explain” themselves through marks. Interestingly, this is where I started in my artistic journey: working with big organic color expanses so long ago. And over time, I’ve approached the subject matter over and over again but never moved forward with it.
For so long, my palette has leaned toward cohesion and blending, neutral tones that melt into each other peacefully. But I want to move into work that feels bolder. Color fields allow for that. A single unapologetic expanse of color can feel irreverent, fearless, and unapologetic in its simplicity. Works that don’t just soften the eye; they confront it, asking the viewer to sit with sensation rather than narrative. They make space for the edgy parts of me that crave a more authentic voice.
what exploration looks like
Imagine expansive and loose shapes that may harmonize but also may vibrate against each other. Planes of color that seem to insist on their own presence, side by side, refusing to dissolve. Perhaps a block of burned sienna pressing against a field of ultramarine. Perhaps black demanding its own weight next to a sudden expanse of turquoise. These choices don’t aim to soothe; they are meant to awaken; meant to make the viewer draw in a breath and shift the energy in a room. To be felt in the body before the mind can make sense of them.
the risk of change
I feel that there is risk here for me; maybe you have felt this in your own life practice? To make work this stripped-down, this direct, is to expose myself in a new way. People will come expecting quiet or beauty and be met instead with intensity, with strangeness, with saturation that cannot be as easily digested as my usual white fields and marks. But risk is an essential part of this practice, and I want to pursue it freshly. For me, it is the willingness to stand in front of a canvas and say: this is enough, even though it may feel like too much. This is the truth of big, wide color, and it is also the truth of me. This time I’m choosing to not cover it up and we’ll see what comes. Thanks for sticking with me through the exploration.
fall changes everything
I’ve been looking for a new, BIGGER, studio and I’m getting closer to finding one, but during the search, I found the BEST Studio Manager who is going to help me with social media, press communications and the parts of this art business that I am so horrible at, as evidenced by my neglected Instagram….UGH. I’ll be introducing her soon, so stay tuned for that, oh and definitely planning to unveil this new work in weeks ahead so stay tuned for that too!
October in SWFL means the quiet summer is over and Season will begin again soon. The humidity has started to abate on some mornings, and we’ll start seeing car carriers again. People are already discussing the holidays (yikes), and restaurant seating is becoming less available.
But like the artwork shift, this is an awakening for us locals that is both necessary and maybe even fun!! …but seriously ask me that again in January and I may have a different answer 🤣
I know I’ll see you on the beach soon with a bunch of friends, and you’ll see me walking with arms full of shells! Happy Fall!
XO, Chris
