Artistic process of Wolk Art:

The process involves an unprecedented method of canvas construction, which consists of revealing canvas framework and fasteners, then painting the image onto the backside of raw canvas. The techniques developed while creating this art form result in atmospheric compositions of layers of color with unique expressive markings. 

The painting begins by misting water onto both the front and back sides to create a break in canvas surface tension and encourage paint saturation. Next a rough composition is sketched onto the front side with a transparent gesso that also encourages paint flow. After which the canvas is flipped and secured horizontally onto a suspension easel with the front side facing the floor. 

Now a most delightful process of painting begins. Think of yourself lying in the grass on a summer day looking up watching clouds form and dance about the sky, while at that very moment you find yourself without a care in the world. This is exactly the feeling I experience when I begin pouring watery paint onto the backside of the canvas. I lay in anticipation below the suspended canvas, a front row view to witness these clouds of color start to form and develop into their amazing shapes as they meet and blend. Eventually the tributaries of paint begin to break through areas of the canvas as colorful rainfalls like a passing sun shower. It is at this point I yield to nature as gravity now does its part of the painting, pulling through what paint it will while creating amazing expressive marks. 

As I lie and observe this developing composition, my mind is clear and only thinking about the energy within the studio at this very moment of time. Sometimes I will find the composition has nothing more to say and the painting is complete. Other times I have a compelling sense of having been asked to respond and interact. I will then reach up and push my fingers into the canvas creating physical tension breaks in areas where flow is looking for a way through. Much like the gardener pruning to let sun and rain in to stimulate growth.

This approach of pulling paint through canvas came from a childhood discovery made while out camping during a rainstorm inside an old canvas tent. I noticed water would drip through the areas I would touch. Soon I found myself touching all over to create shapes and patterns of a delightful rain dance. Today the rain is nonviscous acrylic paint, and the tent becomes the artwork. This is truly an amazingly cathartic way of producing a painting in what feels to be so natural. 

Wolk Art is as much about the sunny days as it is about the dreary days. 

Introspective works that stimulate a spectrum of introspective moments. 

Just as a folk singer structures words and music to motivate change, these are creations of shapes and colors to entice the mind to wander, explore and to be enlightened. 

Engage these paintings as if you were strolling through a meditative garden, where you revel in the union of humanity and nature.