Geoff Disston

I paint landscapes and figurative paintings with acrylics on raw canvas, both vertically and on the floor. This method allows me to make paintings with washes of paint, much like watercolors but on a larger scale, with no muddying of the layers. Wet brush, dry brush, masking, taping, layering, hard edge, and soft edge all come into play. I also use actual plants and fish casts to print on the canvas. I think my work is best when it feels fast and loose, like a big watercolor sketch.  I feel I fail a little when it gets too tight and opaque.

I am a student of art history and will often assimilate ideas and artist that I like. A few of the painters that I admire have been David Hockney for his use of color, especially his earlier work, Alex Katz’s landscapes for his minimalism, and more recently Peter Doig who has shown me how to move away from relying too much on the photograph and to pull ideas from a variety of sources, as well as my own memories.

My current subject matter tends to be landscapes or seascapes of specific places such as Long Island, Maine, or Florida where I spend time.  I will usually include people and their machines as well as animals in the landscapes.