12” x 12” Oil on Board 2025

“Anyone who follows my work knows that I paint the landscape in one form or another. I’m trying a new practice of doing work that taps into a deeper or more unrestrained flow of thoughts and expression and this piece was the first.

This small 12x12 was to be a playground of sorts - a place to let myself make marks and explore new possibilities using no reference; a simple abstract I thought while over painting it several times with no outcome expected. A simple rounded mark took me in the direction of a portrait. Then many iterations later it evolved into a self portrait which I didn’t see till later. 

What looks like a storm brews behind me.

Then the structural forms were born soon followed by the ladders. Stability? 

Climbing up through the imposed structure and to where? 

A piece with no plan following an instinctive path to a result I didn’t foresee.”

~Grant Waddell