People are always shocked when I tell them that they can clean one of my acrylic paintings by hosing it down with a garden hose, and letting it dry in the sun. It’s true that the layers of paint on any of my paintings are gossamer thin, and in that sense the surfaces of the paintings are very fragile. Acrylic paint is permanent, however, and will not wash away, despite the fact that the paintings are born in water. Any painting you might look at has had countless veils of paint applied, each one distinct from the one below it, and discrete from the layer above, each layer allowed to dry and become permanent before the next layer flows. Here’s where the water comes in: the veils are created by working on the canvas wet, anywhere from sopping wet, to slightly moist. So its not just that the canvas has been soaking wet many times already, the soaking is in fact key to development of each painting. Wetting it again can’t hurt it, as long as it dries, and is akin to revisiting the birth of the painting.

I’m musing on water today, particularly, because it is a soft, grey wet day here on the coast. Everything is dripping, beads of water lined up and sparkling on boughs outside my window. I can hear the surf, which is roaring today, and am surrounded by water...