Painting

Ember Procession

Three distinct horizontal bands divide this small square canvas into a landscape of heat and shimmer. The upper field glows with interference violet and lavender, scattered with orange-gold marks that float like sparks or embers drifting upward. A thick, textured ridge of hot pink and fiery red-orange cuts across the center — raw and physical, built up with visible impasto. Below it, a row of rounded silver-gray forms march in tight formation across a golden base, each one bleeding red and yellow between the gaps like molten light seeping through a grate. The interference paints on this piece perform dramatically depending on your light source and viewing angle. Head-on, the upper zone reads as a soft, almost ethereal pink-lavender. Move to the side and it shifts toward copper and warm bronze, while the orange flecks intensify into vivid yellow. The golden lower half catches light like burnished metal, and those silver forms in the center band toggle between cool pewter and a darker graphite depending on where you're standing. This was built in rapid layers — the gold base went down first, then the scalloped silver shapes were pressed in quick rhythmic gestures before the red-orange band was dragged across hot and heavy. The violet interference wash over the top came last, sealing the scattered ember marks underneath while adding its own shifting skin to the surface. The close-up texture shows every thread of the canvas interacting with the paint, creating a micro-topography that catches and bends light at the weave level. Painted at the homestead in Riverside, Washington — this one carries the color of late-summer brush fires on the horizon and the particular quality of evening light that turns the whole Columbia Basin gold.