A bit about my painting process

"Tribunal", oil on linen board, 20" x 16"

​     The annual international performing arts festival, Spoleto Festival USA, starts later this month in Charleston, SC, and I will have an artwork in the 2026 Piccolo Spoleto Juried Exhibition at City Gallery. The artworks were selected by Michael Dickins, chief curator of the Halsey Gallery of Contemporary Art.
     My piece, “Tribunal”, went through a conceptual evolution. It started as an idea to do a composition with wood storks in a dead tree, as I have seen them roost in a tall pine snag in my yard. My photos aren’t very good, so I purchased rights to use a reference photo from a wildlife photography website that caters to artists. The image was of several storks in a tree against a bright blue sky. I chose three poses and made a small pencil sketch rearranging them. Next, I went to a canvas and sketched them in with a bit of charcoal and then thinned oil paint in warm, golden hues. The wiser procedure would be to do a drawing at full scale first, but I get impatient. I stayed with the golden, murky sky which started to feel apocalyptic to me.

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     ​I developed the birds first over several painting sessions and then started redesigning the tree branches and deciding what to do with the lower area. The painting sat in my studio for months while I worked on other things and pondered what the story was. I knew the birds were witnessing environmental destruction and they appeared to me to be both above it all and stoic. The one on the left seems to be peering at something, and their black and white feathers reminded me of judge’s robes. I got out a recently purchased full-sized plastic model of a human skull and added the missing element, supplemented by other bits of symbolic detritus caught in the branches. I was able to paint the plastic bag in one go, from a bag taped to the wall.
The exhibit will be on view May 22 to June 6 at City Gallery at Joe Riley Waterfront Park, 34 Prioleau Street. For more information: City Gallery.

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