Pollencia,  Mallorca, Spain

The walls of this town are so beautiful. Walking through the narrow streets I had to wonder how just the passage of time could create such amazing surfaces. But it is not just the  patina of Time. There is also something else, although it took me awhile to realize it. The other part that goes into the creation of  these gorgeous surfaces and compositions is the fact that there is a non intentionality about them. There is such freshness to the ingredients- a haphazard drainpipe nailed to the wall 50 years ago, random graffiti, a scrape from a passing cart or just the repeated repainting and repairing of the wall over time. This aspect of randomness can be difficult to invite into making artwork, but I realize more and more that often it is the most interesting aspect of a painting.  Like an overloaded cart that is pulled too quickly and ends up scraping the wall in just the right spot, sometimes I just close my eyes and make marks on the surface of my paintings. As hard as I try, rarely do I come even close to what can be seen on the walls of Pollencia.

Opening at Caldwell Snyder Gallery

A tremendous thank you to everyone who made it out to my opening last Thursday evening. I can't ever remember working so hard for so many weeks never having much time to see my friends or even family... Spending a few hours in a beautiful room filled with my artwork with some of my favorite people was a night I will remember for a long time. Again, thanks.

Click here to see the whole show or download a catalog of the paintings or visit the newly designed
Nicholas Wilton website.

Finishing.

I just finished a whole series of paintings for my first solo show with Caldwell Snyder Gallery in San Francisco. Tomorrow I am sending the last 4 paintings to the gallery. I have never painted so much for so long before. There is such a sweetness to finishing something that several moths ago seemed like an impossibility to complete. The struggle that I experienced is offset by the tremendous amount I have learned. It feels more like an improved sensitivity to color, shape, texture, and a quickness of resolution or rather  faster realizations when  I am heading in the wrong direction. My daughter, Lyla, just graduated high school yesterday and at one point in the ceremony the audience's attention was drawn towards the faculty.  The teachers were all sitting together - all so different from one another in look, dress, teaching styles and of course areas of expertise. I thought how fabulous it would be to have so many people's influence on my life or art. Instead, my learning, seems to be more about spending a tremendous amount of time alone in a room thinking about and trying to make sense of what I am making directly in front of me. It seems unlikely that learning mostly ( there is usually a dog present) by oneself would actually take place, but remarkably it does. The dog's name is Maizy and the painting above her is an almost finished commission for a wonderful family in Silicon Valley. The painting is inspired by a box of crayola crayons and their gigantic aquarium filled with tropical fish. The painting will hang in their playroom.