August Notes - 2026

I started a new series of paintings, wanting to create grungy, dark, almost unpleasant grounds. I wasn’t sure what I was going to do with them, but that is where I started. Some of these grounds contained a large amount of black. And you know me, I can’t do anything in the studio without thinking of its possible antecedent. This led me down a black hole (excuse the pun) of paintings that consist only of black, or so it seems. I started with the first all-black painting, which started as a joke. Check out Paul Bilhaud, a member of Arts Incohérents, a wonderfully irreverent group.

I also looked at Malevich, Goya, Anish Kapoor, Ad Reinhardt, Pierre Soulages, and Allan McCollum. I didn’t even get to Rothko or Richard Serra, who I feel I’ll need to add later.