Toby Gordon

The wordlessness and immediacy of painting are what draw me to the studio; the desire to communicate my emotional response to the world through paint is what keeps me there. 

I work from life, memory,  photos, imagination. My interest is not in recreating but in revealing what sparked my initial excitement about a particular place or moment. I trust that the rigor and play of adding, subtracting, and often starting over will lead to a piece that has a life of its own—often small, simplified landscapes or abstractions  that become quiet  meditations on  light, shape, color. 

I am in constant conversation with the work. From the first mark, I wonder what is the painting saying to me? How can I intuitively yet thoughtfully respond? And no matter the final result, it is the engagement, the process—the conversation—that matters most to me.