New Beginnings…

by Cristi Smith January 12, 2015

I hope everyone’s new year is beginning with health, prosperity and happiness. Although never one to make New Year’s resolutions, I see that I am compelled to make one that keeps this blog updated weekly since I pledged to do that back in December. It’s a new era (i.e. adjustment) for old school writers and it's apparent that my blog activity is still lacking in the frequency department and I’ll resolve to do better in 2015!

Let’s talk about Ford, shall we? He turned 64 on December 31st and celebrated in high style with family and friends. He’s a staunch believer that age is just a number, and as far as artists go, he’s quite a young painter since he only began painting again in earnest just 12 years ago. Never resting with one style, palette or theme, this might help explain his continuous development and shifting styles of painting. He’s growing, expanding and challenging himself with each visit to the studio. Here’s an example of how just one of those new ideas emerged:

Ford was creating a seascape toward the end of November. As is his technique, he began the painting using a dark background (he finds that color applied on top of a dark background appears more saturated by doing so). He paused the work because he really liked the dreamy, abstracted nature of the “black sea” and chose to allow that to command the creative. His goal was to refrain from over‐painting it‐‐which is can be a difficult thing for a skilled artist to do‐‐and let sheer emotion dictate the result. With brilliant artistic control, he applied subtle, glowing highlights of a set sun and bathed the waters in moonlight with pale blues with a fiery hint of red in the sky. Grounding this remarkable ocean is the glistening sand in the foreground, where Ford used a glimmering, matte texture that positively shimmers‐‐a wholly unique application debuting in this painting entitled, “Pause to Reflect”. The painting is a showstopper and ushers in a new series of work from Ford that we’ve named the “Monochromatic” series.

The following week Ford created “Night Caps” and drifted back into landscapes with an ethereal monochromatic influence with “Twilight Surrender”. These brand new paintings are winning rave reviews and we’ll be interested to see where else he goes with the Monochromatics.