James Angell, Born 1950

Many times I have begun a painting with a specific image in mind. I am fairly certain of what the work will look like. If I am able to seize the impetus, my task is simply to coax that image out of the ether and fix it upon the canvas.

In reality however, it is only after I relinquish my precept that the true process of painting is set into motion. The image starts to come to life. It seemingly begins to accept or reject colors, lines and forms of its own volition. It will and does demand my attention.

In these new paintings for instance, an arbitrary shadow falling across an early version provided me with a critical element in the composition. The shadow appeared to be a natural division of the background. Continued imposition of my precept at that point would have lost that dynamic opportunity and somehow may have doomed the work to a partial or complete failure. By abandoning the precept, a path opened that while being indeterminate, was far more interesting and pleasurable to travel. A substantively different quality of energy was engaged; one which ebbs and flows, sinks and soars, halts, dissolves and hopefully resurges anew.

It is only by allowing myself to enter into this nature of active dialogue with the painting itself that something of impact and possibly permanence can emerge.