SOLD TM8156 Theme and Variations #2 36×48 oil on panel

When I started work on Theme and Variations #2, it was with the memory of a Philip Glass musical composition in my head – recently performed on piano by Bruce Brubaker at the New England Conservatory. Both Glass and Brubaker have an incredibly light touch, and are skilled at finding the most subtle variations between notes  – indeed, it is the vibrations in the empty spaces between notes that often resound in their work. I wanted to find an equivalent effect in depicting the wave, as if the moisture in the atmosphere were like the echoes of notes in a Glass composition. Brubaker’s light touch was also a challenge – how to create ever more subtle blends and a feeling of weightlessness in the atmosphere above the wave. Momentum and repose, sound and silence – these are the real subjects of the painting. Enjoy!