Hi my name is Karen Haynes, I am a painter working both in representation and abstraction. This painting "Drifting In and Out" is oil and cold wax on canvas. It is part of an ongoing still life series that I have been working on for a long time. That is a series that talks about fragility and strengh, both emotional and physical, by using bricks and flowers. This piece has gone through several interations but that is not unusal for me. I usually paint over, scrape off, re-work, scribble out, whatever. Whatever it takes to get to the place where I don't have anymore questions about the painting. Where it says to me it is complete. Questions answered. That sense of completion is frequently embodied in the smallest detail. The weight of a line here, a shape, a smudge there. All of this is done at the end of the work of painting. At the end of this painting. In this quiet thoughful space where I ask myself, will this line, this color be too much, or not quite enough?
Thank you for listening.