Croque Debris @ Catahoula Café!

Here's a recent addition to the framed series that goes up in Catahoula Café in Richmond, California. Many thanks to Gerarde Gutierrez who manages the art space there for making this happen. Considering how many of the paintings were done just a short walk from Catahoula, it's great to finally be able to share the paintings with the neighbors who frequent the cafe and often see me in Mira Vista park painting in the morning.

More to come!

A Fond Farewell

After taking down my first croque debris show at the 2727 Mariposa Starbucks in San Francisco, I settled in to work on a farewell piece using leaves that had fallen from one of the Bryant Street trees. The green one had a pattern of deep viridian diamonds. I also took some chances with the background by letting the paint bleed a bit with saturated colors based on the warm interior lights of the cafe.

Things to Come...

I have recently found myself interested on exploring not only the value and surface details of botanical forms, but also their dimensional qualities. Sculpture and painting typically exist in separate realms of art practice and intellectual discourse. However my main subject, has physical qualities so closely related to the paper I am working on, new opportunities for discovery and experimentation. 

Thus far, croque debris celebrates spatial relationships, and the depth created by the interplay of form and cast shadows on a flat surface. What if the shapes were in fact spaces and their values determined by actual distances behind the painting surface?

 This study was done at the Catahoula Cafe in Richmond, CA during a meeting with local art and art education phenom Jerarde Gutierrez. It was my first attempt at bridging painting and sculpture through a memory-based leaf study using watercolor and my favorite cold-press paper.

With this new set of variables and the addition of the X-acto knife to my tool kit, I expect the next series of croque debris watercolors to lead to something new and exciting...

First Croque Debris exhibition in San Francisco

I am currently exhibiting my first series of croque debris small botanical watercolor paintings at the Starbucks Coffee on 2727 Mariposa (@ Bryant).

"Croque debris" translates to “debris sketch”. I coined the term in 2014 with the help of my artist friend Chantal Fournier of Quebec, Canada. This series began as a part of my semi-daily exercise routine at Mira Vista Park in Richmond, California. After my morning walk, run or workout, I would find a leaf with an interesting shape or color and commit to a 45-minute- to hour-long watercolor painting. Then, I would photograph and upload the painting to my Facebook, Tumblr and Instagram accounts with the original subject beside the painting.

Each painting teaches me something new about seeing color and detail, compositions, and finding interesting cast shadows.

I owe much of my renewed passion for painting from life to my experiences as an MFA student at the Academy of Art University. Instructors John Poon and Zhaoming Wu were instrumental
in reintroduced me to the humbling ritual of painting from life. Croque debris is a meditation on cycles of decay and renewal in the urban landscape where nature is always the better painter and a great teacher.