Entry 01: PIGMENT PALIMPSEST PARADISE

CRACKING, PEELING, CRUMBLING, 'FRESCO' RUINS OF ALETEJO: My first visual journal of a brief series, recorded during my time in residence in Arraiolos, Portugal.

Over the first two over-cast and rainy weeks in residence, the painted borders of the village’s white-washed walls were almost serotonergic to me. Each worn, chipped away, revealing a secondary, sometime tertiary color combination; blues over yellows and golds, reds under white, blues under even deeper azures, some rusting into oblivion, or adorned with ghost penmanship, and nearly each tinted with the slight green hue of nature’s age, mosses and lichen in their own otherworldly color spectrum.

THE COMBINATIONS OF PIGMENT, COMBINED WITH AGE (ABOVE), WERE ALMOST IRRIDESCENT TO MY EYE - WROUGHT IRON DETAILING WAS UNMISSIBLE.

A dear friend and I have a developed a vocabulary for our specific yet mutual obsession of patina arcadia — one we simply refer to as crumble.

SENTIMENTAL FAVORITES: CEMETARY ADORNMENTS, CHALK CARNATIONS AND CRAFT JEWELS, RELICS OF PORTUGUESE INDEPENDENCE.

Just —

Beginning my newsletter here feels like a natural introduction to my work and general inclinations within my painting practice. Implementing rubbing and sanding techniques, using heavily textured canvases and textiles as a base, and working with natural or oiled down pigments, I’m developing processes and a visual language that recall my hand, the working background that I come from, age, and the passing of time.

The following letters will share a little insight into these processes and progress work as I’ve found my studio rhythm again — Til next x