About My Paintings

My paintings to date fall into two categories: portraiture and surrealism. The portraiture paintings are simply those that have special meaning to me, e.g., my deceased wife, or that move me for one reason or another, e.g., family members.   

Mostly, I prefer to do surrealist paintings in realist manner. My aim is to achieve the refined techniques (but not necessarily the styles) of  Rene Magritte and Salvador Dali (post-1945). 

Within my surreal works, I further prefer to do figurative works. Many (most?) of my surrealist works seem to have taken on a style which I call "Introspective Surrealism".  By "introspective" I mean that my paints reflect things that I feel and that have or are effecting my life. Often my paintings reflect one or more of my neuroses. These neurotic elements are masked in the metaphors of the paintings. The metaphors are instantiated in surreal terms. Like the goal of the early surrealists (esp. Breton), my surrealism is a reflection of deep feelings, but unlike the early surrealist attempts, my surreal representations are done quite consciously and, so to speak, with "malice of aforethought."