RANDALL DAVID TIPTON
The environment I live in and the landscapes I travel to are the content of my work. This has always been so. I need personal contact with a place to have the sensory information to create a convincing work. My paintings always begin with an experience in a landscape. Whether it`s a walk in a local park or a destination hike, what happens while there is critical. It`s the experience which is my true subject.
From the encyclopedias in our home, my earliest artistic influence came from the Zen Japanese aesthetic. Then later from the insights of the American Abstract Expressionists. Their conviction that meaningful, honest painting was best achieved through improvisation inspired me. Though I am dedicated to interpreting the natural world, this is done as a secondary concern as I respond to the painting process taking place before me.
As I manipulate the paint, memory is a key element. When something within the character of that landscape emerges, I recognize it and build from there.
I believe that my frequent immersion into the environment informs my work in a deeply subconscious manner and is revealed in the act of painting.
