...may not have a lot to do reality. As a painter and photographer I often live in this visual ‘other world’. These cherry blossom branches have wrapped around the trunk of a Birch tree transforming themselves into an exotic new variety that doesn’t exist! To my eye the sum of their parts has become more beautiful. 

Abstraction in painting often undergoes a similar transformation. This scene which I quickly shot with my phone camera, immediately triggered some fabulous visual ideas. Form, rhythm, contrast; it goes on.  Back in my studio I shift from the photo reference or sketch, and while keeping remnants of the original idea, begin painting. What evolves will be something else entirely. The painting becomes layered with an intensity and history of marks that began as a simple creative thought. The end result is a painting that ‘breathes it’s story’ whether it is real or not.  

This new ‘cherry blossom-birch’ is talking to me right now, can't wait to experience where this journey leads into the painter's ‘other world’.