Adam S. Doyle

I make images that keep the window partly open between the subject being depicted and the marks made by my hand. In painting a sparrow, for example, the bird is clearly a bird. While at the same time the oil paint on the canvas remains oil paint. This open relationship allows two important qualities to be at the forefront: energy and transformation.

By energy, I am addressing the physical movement of the subject being depicted and the motion of my hand during the act of creation. The brush strokes describe not only surface, form, color, and texture, but make visible the energy that unites all living things.

By transformation I am speaking of the process in which a flat, blank surface becomes another reality.

A painted canvas contains the illusion of bird. A skilled artist can paint a sparrow so the it looks completely real, as if it were a photograph. A partly painted sparrow however reveals to the viewer the alchemy at work. The pencil line and brush strokes are visibly morphing from surface to paint to illusion.
This magic is a feature I find fascinating and thereby endeavor to retain it.
Keeping these elements simple allows for a simultaneity of openness of interpretation and clarity of communication. The content that I focus on tends to be classic in nature- the human condition, mythology,
and the natural world.