John Mitchell

GALLERY

ARTIST STATEMENT

My paintings are generally born out of observation of things and places I see and come to know through extended periods of looking. The things are generally flowers and simple items, and the places are the places I roam and love in and around Southern New Jersey. These places and things allow me to see new shapes, colors, and patterns that I try to arrange into interesting pictures. Once the thing or place is looked at long enough, and the colors and shapes that make it up are remembered and known, I can then move onto dealing with them as simply formal elements of a design to be moved or altered to best serve each other within the bounds of the painting. My only concern is that in the end the painting can be interesting enough to be looked at for as long as I originally looked at the things or places from which the painting derives.