A small painting where the physical pleasure of paint becomes the subject itself
In Cheese Platter & Wine Glass (1982) I was deep in a period when the tactile pleasure of moving paint across a surface was at its most pronounced. These small works were less about the objects depicted and more about the sensory charge of paint — its weight, its drag, its ability to assert itself as material before it becomes image.
I remember clearly the first time, as a teenager, I saw a sweeping black stroke in a painting by Franz Kline. That single gesture stayed with me — the authority of it, the way it cut across the surface with unapologetic force. Years later, while studying clay figure modeling with Peter Agostini, I felt that same physicality: the sense that form emerges from touch, pressure, and movement.
This painting belongs to a group of small works where I let those influences converge. The cheese, the platter, the wine glass — they’re present, but they’re also excuses to explore the power of paint itself. The strokes are confident, almost sculptural, and the surface carries the memory of every gesture. It was a moment when I trusted paint to speak first, and the objects to follow.
Dimensions: 12″ × 13″
Medium: Oil on matboard
Framing: Custom-framed by me to complement my specific painting aesthetic.
A small painting where the physical pleasure of paint becomes the subject itself
In Cheese Platter & Wine Glass (1982) I was deep in a period when the tactile pleasure of moving paint across a surface was at its most pronounced. These small works were less about the objects depicted and more about the sensory charge of paint — its weight, its drag, its ability to assert itself as material before it becomes image.
I remember clearly the first time, as a teenager, I saw a sweeping black stroke in a painting by Franz Kline. That single gesture stayed with me — the authority of it, the way it cut across the surface with unapologetic force. Years later, while studying clay figure modeling with Peter Agostini, I felt that same physicality: the sense that form emerges from touch, pressure, and movement.
This painting belongs to a group of small works where I let those influences converge. The cheese, the platter, the wine glass — they’re present, but they’re also excuses to explore the power of paint itself. The strokes are confident, almost sculptural, and the surface carries the memory of every gesture. It was a moment when I trusted paint to speak first, and the objects to follow.
Dimensions: 12″ × 13″
Medium: Oil on matboard
Framing: Custom-framed by me to complement my specific painting aesthetic.
Painted on primed paper board and framed in a floater frame to accentuate its tactile quality and the technique of painting to the edges. The actual painting size is 10x13”.
