This is my Palm Springs Pool Series of Paintings, inspired by photos that I took around the pool of my mid-century home in Palm Springs. It’s amazing how something as simple as a Barbie Towel from Target can take on a whole new life when draped over the edge of the pool. Faded after years of use, the old towel’s tones became richer and more saturated in the water, which made for great photos and even greater paintings.

I painted this sequential series of paintings (the top three) all at the same time. This was a new approach for my work, as I’d never had the required studio space to work on so many paintings at one time.

These paintings are larger in size than their actual environment, and they’re also very tight compositions of moments that most people don’t notice. Therefore, when they’re viewed in person, people have a difficult time understanding what they are. They often see the geometry in the images, but not ‘what they are’. Once they finally see it, there’s a big ‘ah hah’ moment.

I’m a big fan of the artist Francoise Gilot.  I had the pleasure of meeting her about 8 years ago at a spectacular gallery opening of her works on the upper east side in Manhattan. I was so captivated by the large scale geometry of her work, that it challenged me to see images in a different way.  At the time of the show, she was about 85, and I found the  boldness and modernness of her work remarkable for someone of her age. But why should age have anything to do with the quality or tone of your work? It was my perception of how I thought an older woman should paint. But this is a woman who has been painting for over 70 years, and who spent a decade with Pablo Picasso. In her book,  Life with Picasso, she talked about how Pablo challenged her to distill her work, and say more with fewer strokes of the brush. Reduce. Reduce. Reduce. Paint the image, then take some of it away.

Over the years, I’ve continued to let this concept resonate with me. In the above paintings, I also focused on texture. Francoise will often use her fingers to create surface texture in her paintings,  so I gave that a try with the different colors of the towels. I used a stippling brush technique with the concrete pool coping, and chose an uber smooth finish for  the pool tile. The water brushstrokes are very horizontal and blended, creating a mirroring effect of the surrounding tones.  These elements combined together, create a true richness to the overall finished product. Interestingly enough, I haven’t sold a single one of these paintings. So lets hope the test of time works in my favor and some savvy and sophisticated collector falls in love with these works and simply has to have them. If not.. I’m happy to enjoy them myself.