IN SEARCH OF A COPPER ROOF
While travelling in Japan, I was intrigued by the colors of rooftops in rural areas. I did a small painting to remind myself of that experience. It was sent to Europe for exhibition, where it was stolen. The memory of that painting morphed. Using the roof in landscape as a theme, I started to create different landscape paintings of places I had been. I incorporated the changing colors of copper -- orange, turquoise or verdigris as rooftops in each of those locations. The palette in this series is similar, but the light changes from mist to sun to rain to fog, from the high, bright light of summer to the low-angle light of autumn. It is interesting how any loss can trigger the imagination as we try to recall what is no longer there. Working in a small, square format was a challenge for me. Most of my work has been quite large. I gave these paintings the same importance, freedom and spontaneity of larger works. They have the same expansiveness. A large scale was not necessary. The viewer can roam the space in these works as they would a mural-sized painting.