Tropical Extremes

Check out the video from my recent Tropical Extremes exhibition

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mw_a_BD6agQ

Some call the tropics weird…I call them extreme.

The skies, trees and flowers are truly exotic…the birds are bigger…the lightning is more fierce…the wildlife is really wild.

Having lived in Florida for over seven years…the flora and fauna has truly captured and rekindled my imagination. It’s so bold! There are birds with 10’ wing spans soaring over the lake outside my studio window - turtles the size of VW bugs moseying across the driveway - panther crossing signs on the back roads…I mean it’s crazy!

 
Finally, it hit me.  I needed to capture these images…not with my normal triple 000 brush…but with big bold statements. When I discovered the recently developed acrylic aerosol paint, I had found just the right medium to capture this stuff on large canvasses. I detest “tagging”, but I’ve always been intrigued by street art – a nice way to describe graffiti – and with spray cans of aerosol acrylics, I am able to achieve the boldness and excitement of this extreme environment and bring it indoors as fine art.

 
It’s hard to overcome years of creating only highly detailed images…accuracy and precision are still two of my hallmarks…but by striking just the right mix of street art with some highly controlled brushstrokes, I am able to achieve the big loose, wacky Tropical feeling with enough detail to make even Audubon proud. I call it Tropical Extremes.