DREAMER SERIES: Dreamer II, Oil on Canvas, 48" x 60", © S. Michael Gaston. All Rights Reserved.
Landscape
"It will be difficult to name a class of landscape in which the sky is not the key note, the standard of scale, and the chief organ of sentiment." -John Constable.
The "Gaia Series" of landscape paintings are relatively late to my body of work. They include both plein air (on-site) and studio paintings that attempt to capture the magical atmosphere of scenes and places that I have visited. There are paintings from Florida, North Carolina, Georgia, Alaska and Italy. I have also included one painting from the "Intuition Series" which is part landscape and part still life.
Still Life
"Who told you that one paints with colors? One makes use of colors, but one paints with emotions." -Jean-Baptiste-Simeon Chardin.
I have a couple of oil paintings here, one from the "Enigma Series: Memories of My Mother", and one from the "Intuition Series: Insight". I feel they capture some of the mystery and drama that the simple objects can sometimes convey. "Insight" can be categorized as either a still life or a landscape painting.
Drawing
"Drawing and color are not separate at all; in so far as you paint, you draw. The more the color harmonizes, the more exact the drawing becomes."
-Paul Cezanne.
Drawing is the basis for everything that I do, from a rough sketch of an idea to a more fully developed and finished concept. This mixture of drawings includes surfaces such as mylar, drawing paper, charcoal paper, printmaking papers, sandpaper and newsprint. I have drawn with stabilo pencils, graphite pencils, charcoal, pastel pencils, and Conté pencils.