Behind the Canvas: My Painting Process
People often ask me how I begin a painting. Where the process starts. If there’s a plan. The truth is, the process is both structured and unpredictable. There are patterns, yes. Ways I begin, materials I return to, but no two paintings are the same. Each one requires something slightly different. Something I can’t always explain before I begin.
Still, there are a few threads that run through everything I make.
It begins with space
I usually start with the background. Sometimes I layer newspaper onto the canvas, building a surface that already holds tension, history, and language, even if unreadable. Other times, it begins with color. Once I’ve established that foundation, I sketch a figure in pencil. This helps me understand the composition, the space the character occupies, and what that space might mean. From there, the work begins to take on a life of its own.
Translating emotion
Expressionist art is about more than distortion. It’s about feeling and turning that feeling into form. That part of the process is difficult to describe. Emotion isn’t a fixed concept. It shifts and moves. My work is not a literal representation of what I feel but a visual expression of it, a kind of projection. Through brushstrokes, gesture, and layering, I try to externalize something internal.
Distortion and perception
Distortion is part of my process, but not just visually. It’s conceptual. Perception is not reality. It’s filtered through experience, memory, and emotion. The way I see a face or a body is shaped by my own interpretation. Exaggerated lines or color shifts aren’t mistakes. They’re choices that reflect the psychological space I’m trying to explore.
The human figure as subject
I’ve always been drawn to people, not just as visual subjects, but as emotional ones. I pay attention to how someone carries themselves, how they speak, or don’t speak. What they reveal unintentionally. I’m interested in what isn’t said. That’s what I try to paint.
The human figure is infinitely variable. Unlike a landscape, it doesn’t follow a seasonal cycle. It’s influenced by mood, memory, history. For me, it’s the most complex and rewarding subject to paint.
Not psychology, but curiosity
While I have a background in psychology, I don’t paint from theory. I paint from instinct. My interest in human behavior informs the way I observe, but not the way I create. What drives me is not knowledge, but curiosity. Painting is my way of processing what I feel, not diagnosing what I see.
No fixed path
There is no single protocol I follow. I often begin with a representation or concept in mind, but it always evolves. Color, shape, the figure’s expression, all of it is open to change. That change might come from emotion. It might come from frustration. Or limitation. The work responds to me as much as I respond to it.
The chemistry of color
Color is central to everything I do. But I don’t follow rules. I work intuitively. As I blend and layer, I imagine how color might affect the figure and how it might evoke movement, or stillness, or pressure. I often compare it to chemistry. It’s experimental. I’m trying to create a reaction that makes something feel alive.
Materials and interpretation
I work in mixed media: oil, pencil, newspaper, photography. Each material serves a different role, but I never choose a newspaper for its content. I’m not interested in giving the viewer a fixed message. I believe that defining meaning for someone limits their imagination. My goal is to create space for interpretation, not direct it.
Spontaneity and closure
While some of my paintings are planned in structure, the process is largely spontaneous. That’s essential to how I work. There’s no checklist. And I never truly know when a painting is finished. Sometimes I return to a piece months after I’ve signed it, when something still feels unresolved.
The viewer’s experience
My hope is that the viewer feels something, not necessarily what I felt, but something personal. I want them to be able to create their own story from what they see. To step into the work and make it theirs. For me, that’s where the painting becomes complete.