NEW from The Maps Series -

"Taxi!"
digital collage by Mick Mather

Over the last few weeks I've talked more than a little bit about stretching into unfamiliar territory with my tools as well as the way I think about, and look at, my work. I've moved, almost totally, into a much more graphic, illustration-like style that I seem to like very much. Seeing the work in this way has given me a lot more impetus toward making good on an old threat - turning some of this work into real, large-size paintings. While what you see here is a finished work, behind the scenes are another dozen image treatments and layers. Many of these are basic, broadly, blocked-in underpaintings (go here to see a 7-step series of one of Bryan Larsen's wonderful paintings to see what I mean) that I need to understand and paint in order to get started. Hmmm, $29.99 will get me that painting table I've been looking for since last summer.