October, 2024
Featured Artist

I have always been leaning into abstraction, although I do figurative painting and Plein Aire painting and work from photographs.  My interest is to make the medium the subject, the oil paint.  I paint in oil because of its goopiness.  I scrape off marks and paint with my pallete knife working and reworking in order to find the gesture in what I’m looking at.  I’ve developed this style after years of looking at the same artists, Manual Neri, Frank Auerbach, Richard Diebencorn and others that paint and rework in a way I like.  They leave their searching marks, which adds to their expressive styles.  I’m always searching for artists that work this way. 

I’ve lived in the area for a long time, went to UCSB, City College and then took classes at the Schott Center.  I am now retired from teaching English and Art at the junior high level in Oxnard.  I continue to take Plein Aire classes at the Schott Center and belong to the SCAPE group and to the Santa Barbara Arts Association. 

instagram: @beardsley166