ABOUT DOUG FREED

My paintings consist of two or more panels. One panel is landscape imagery. The other adjacent panel is often an atmospheric void where vestiges of the recognizable landscape are found. I try to capture the mystical light found in natural atmospheric effects: the haze in the distance on humid summer days, the overcast gloom of winter skies, the softness of landscape bathed in fog, and the quieting mood of approaching darkness. My intent is to create paintings imbued with meditative spiritual presence.

I paint on a regular basis, travel internationally and use photos I've taken as sources for my works. I paint with oils landscape vistas of horizons, clouds and bodies of water.

The compositions are about ambiguities of form and void, foreground and background, and surface and deep space. Also, they are about ambiguities of associational images and pure abstraction, referential, and non-referential structures. My sources are often ancient architecture. I am fascinated by archaeological and architectural spaces, particularly their sense of mystery. It is this mystical and mysterious quality I seek in my painted structures. I do this by softly modulating color tone and value to create illusions of emanating light, where one's eyes and spirit are invited to linger.