I am drawn to life experiences that sit at the edge of language—fleeting, elusive moments that resist clear articulation and closure. My work blends painting, drawing, and other processes to translate perceptions into layered visual forms, a practice I think of as constructing visual and conceptual palimpsests—images built through accumulation, revision, erasure, and reconfiguration.
For example, in Broken Lines, a deconstructed metal bookshelf is repurposed to form three-dimensional drawings in the studio. Photographs of these constructions are then layered by hand, producing new images that visually compress time. In Static Fields, sensations experienced while cycling through the woods become monochromatic, textural paintings. The Clearing transforms notations of atmospheric color and glacial melt in Iceland into layered abstractions while Projections expand these inquiries, merging painting, drawing, light projection, collage, photography, and installation. A photograph of the sky framed by my studio window becomes paintings and light installations reinserted into the site where the image originated. Though each work begins with a specific encounter, my goal is to create open-ended artworks that feel both enigmatic and quietly familiar.
I am equally compelled by the palpable seduction of light, color, and paint. I experiment freely, combining centuries-old techniques with contemporary tools, pairing labor-intensive processes (scraping, sanding, masking, mark-making) with seemingly effortless gestures of digital touchscreens. The evolution of image-making, from mixing ground pigment with oil to using smartphones, continues to fascinate me.
As an artist and educator, I believe the process of making is an active form of thinking, which can ultimately sharpen and expand one’s perception of reality. I remain committed to creating work that poeticizes this layering process while exploring abstraction, the formless, and the notational.
-Paul Jeanes