I painted in the NC Plein Air event in New Bern in May of 2025, and again this month in 2026. I didn’t paint in between, and yet my work matured. What matured was this: this time, my focus wasn’t on depiction alone, but on design.
There has always been that “something” inside me wanting to get out—the reason I paint at all, I think—but this felt like a major shift, something I would call a maturing. It was an exploration for more, for deeper. It makes me excited to get out and paint again, to not waste time, and to paint like a dog gnaws a bone, as Robert Henri said.
The works are far from perfection—not even close—but I see something in them that transcends depiction for depiction’s sake. I see a great deal of plein air work that looks very similar, and I think it’s because the underlying goal is often similar as well.
That’s what’s on my mind now: Why am I painting? What do I want to accomplish in a work, or in a body of work?
The Impressionists had their aim, the Post-Impressionists theirs, the Expressionists theirs. They were all pursuing something specific. I’m searching for my thing now.
