As I transitioned to this body of oil paintings after the Firstlight series, I moved away from the smooth, atmospheric “glide” that characterized those earlier works, and began to let the paintings retain a roughness, an abruptness, in their color relationships.

The white bars in Oil #3 on the side act as a framing device—it’s a portal opening onto a Tiepolo sky. The white bar that reappears in throughout this series is important. It’s part of being locked out of seeing the full picture. You get a tiny sliver, a taste. I often think that the suggestion of a full composition is more powerful than if you were allowed to get an unhindered view of it—I think that’s who we are as mammals, as creatures.