Swimmer Paintings

There are 17 new swimmer paintings in my Alberta studio right now, and I'm working on them back and forth. None are finished yet, and that's exactly why I wanted to show you where this series is headed.

Hands, wet hair, reflections and red

I've painted swimmers for many years. This series focuses on four things that keep repeating across the paintings: hands, wet hair, reflections and red bathing suits.

Why these four

Each one starts from a photograph I licensed from a professional photographer, or from a Creative Commons image. I crop the photographs into balanced compositions, shift the colours, and push the range of tones, from deep shadow to bright light, until the image feels like my own.

From the real photographs, those details of hands and wet hair are where the beauty is. These paintings are my way of interpreting a real moment through my own eyes.

One palette, one family

Those colour shifts follow a small set of mixes I use across the whole series: skin and water each have their own, with subtle variations from canvas to canvas. Because I'm working on all 17 at once, each painting shapes the others. Hung together, they don't compete for attention. They share a similar light.

I'm also considering floating frames from Rustic & Burl, which let each canvas appear to hover inside its frame.

Follow along

These contemporary figurative paintings will be finished over time, through many layers. If one of them speaks to you, I'd love to hear which one. To ask about my work in progress, or to hear when the series is available, please contact me.