Artistic Statement

I am a painter and etcher and find that working with both media reinforce each effort. I paint in oils, indirectly by building up a thin underpainting in neutral colors & then gradually introducing a richer, more opaque paint, utilizing glazes throughout the process.  My imagery reflects ideas about paradoxes and differences, a combination of the real & imagined world.

The women in the prints and paintings project dream-like qualities and live in a realm where objects and images float in and out of focus like reflections in a mirror.

The landscapes are from memory and imagination. Most are of Upstate New York. The receding frames or windows are a formal device for realizing my memory and dealing with peripheral vision.

They are a sort of view-finder. I am interested in the paradox between window and picture; and the difference between vision and the painted surface.

-Bruce Muirhead