While creating, I am reminded of the birds-eye view of a piece of ground, or a landscape. While I am focused on a particular organic object that has caught my attention, I am aware it is completely surrounded in the infinite details that make up the entire picture – the tiny rocks, flecks of minerals, botanical matter, and even the space between these objects.   It is this interaction of these spatial planes and various elements that may create a sense of place. It is my hope that the inspired imagery will evoke an emotional response to a place we have never seen, but yet we know somehow and find familiar.

Rob Douglas brings together oils and acrylics, combining the two to heighten the luminosity of his paintings. Beginning with acrylics diluted down to a wash, and with marble dust added, he develops the backgrounds and base layers. The marble dust creates a chalky, gritty tooth and texture which produces the perfect surface for the delicate charcoal markings and shapes that he introduces to those layers. Inks and pigments are used to generate many of the larger forms and indistinct shapes. Then, more applications of diluted washes are employed to obscure these forms. As he randomly sands away portions of these areas a sense of age and weathering is conveyed. Layers of acrylic and/or oil glazes come into play next, to create the color fields. Finally, all the pieces are finished with a linseed oil varnish for the depth it imparts, as well as the durability it provides.