The Roaming Current Collection

Bodies of water, oceans, lakes, rivers, and the like, draw me in. Sometimes it flows for miles and you can’t see where it ends. You never really know how deep it is, or what mysteries it contains. The water is always moving, yet it is stable. You can count on it being right where you left it, mostly unchanged. In a world full of change, there’s comfort in coming back to the same bodies of water year after year.

The expanse of the water makes me feel small. Feeling small is often thought of as being a bad thing. We associate it with being weak or powerless, but there’s beauty in weakness. Sometimes I want to be powerless. I can’t always hold the the weight of everything. Staring into the expanse of the ocean or the depths of a lake, I feel calmed. This water has been here longer than me, and it will continue to exist after me. Nothing really changes all that much.

Water is the consistent piece in the Roaming Current collection. Not only in image, but also in the creation of each piece. I used water soluble oil paints for this collection. Normally oil paints need to be thinned with another kind of oil, but water soluble oils can be mixed with water. This kind of paint allows me to get the richness of color that oil paints provide, while getting the movement and flow of watercolor paints. Water was an element in this painting that couldn’t be fully controlled, creating drips & merging colors wherever it chose.

Although each image is based on a photo I’ve taken from different parts of the world, they all reflect bodies of water that have made me pause. Stopping and taking a deep breath, letting go of anything not present in that moment. These bodies of water have grounded me, and my hope is that these pieces do the same for you.

The Roaming Current Collection will be released June 3rd at noon, but Collector’s List subscribers will get early access to view and shop the collection in advance.