Surface Studies — the quieter work

What the work is, and isn't

Surface Studies aren't paintings of anything in the usual sense. They aren't trying to look like water, or grass, or fog — though some of them inevitably do. What they're trying to do is sit on a wall and be a presence rather than a picture. To add a quality to a room — a quietness, a coolness, a warmth — without telling you a story.

If Hills & Sky is the studio's outdoor voice, Surface Studies is its indoor voice. The pieces are smaller, mostly. The palettes are tighter, often monochromatic. The textures matter as much as the color. A piece like Silver Ferns — the painting at the top of this page — is built almost entirely from the rhythm of a palette knife dragged through wet acrylic; the color is almost incidental. A piece like Yellow Light is the opposite: smooth surface, all about the way two colors fade into each other in a particular way.

Who this series is for

• Collectors who already have a strong, colorful piece on a major wall and want a quieter painting for the bedroom, study, or hallway
• People drawn to mid-century abstract painting, color-field work, or contemporary minimalism — but on a more accessible scale and price point
• Designers furnishing rooms where the architecture or the textiles do the visual heavy lifting and the art needs to recede
• Buyers who want a piece they can live with for years without ever feeling tired of it — abstracts age more slowly than narrative landscapes
• Gift-givers looking for something more sophisticated than a typical decorative piece, especially for milestone professional gifts

How a Surface Studies piece actually gets made

These paintings emerge slowly. Most begin without a clear plan — a base layer of color, a surface decision (textured? smooth? built-up with a palette knife? feathered with a fan brush?) — and then build up over multiple sessions. The paint dries between layers; the texture compounds. A piece that ends up looking simple on the wall has often had eight or ten layers of work in it.

A few pieces from the series

On living with abstract work

People sometimes hesitate at abstract paintings because they don't know "what they mean." The honest answer is that meaning is something you bring to a piece, not something the piece comes with. A landscape painting tells you what to see. An abstract painting asks you what you see. That can feel like a lot of work — but it's also why abstracts age so well. They keep changing.

A Hills & Sky painting will look the same to you in ten years as it does today. A Surface Studies painting won't. The way the light hits it in the morning will reveal a texture you missed for months. A bad week will make it feel one way; a good day will make it feel another. The piece accumulates meaning over time the way a window does — not by changing, but by being there for everything that passes in front of it.

How a Surface Studies commission works

Commissions in this series are possible but take longer than Hills & Sky pieces, because the work itself takes longer. A typical Surface Studies commission runs 6-10 weeks from deposit to delivery. The process:

• Reach out with the size you're imagining, the room or wall, and a description of the mood — calm, quiet, warm, contemplative, brooding. Color preferences help.
• The studio replies with whether it's a fit, a likely timeline, and a quote.
• If you proceed, a 50% deposit holds your slot.
• Mid-process update happens around week 3-4, often with a question or two for you about direction.
• Final approval before shipping. Adjustments at this stage are limited but possible.
• Delivery typically 6-10 weeks after deposit, depending on the queue and the complexity.