“Duo: Citrus Tones” is a paired exploration of energy and pause, told through a citrus palette—tangerine, lemon, lime—cooled by notes of slate blue and pale cream. Working small allowed me to think in gestures rather than descriptions. Each panel is a conversation between opaque blocks and translucent scrapes, between drawn graphite lines and broad, tactile swaths of paint.
I built the surfaces in layers—apply, lift, score, repeat—so that edges carry evidence of time. The scratched arcs and horizontal seams act like fault lines, guiding the eye across fields of color and letting quieter neutrals breathe between brighter notes. The recurring circular forms suggest seeds, pits, or suns—organic anchors inside otherwise abstract terrain.
Though the two pieces share a chromatic DNA, they serve different roles in the duet: one leans into vertical tension and heat; the other widens into horizontals and a cooler drift. Together they hold a balance I return to often—structure and spontaneity, sweetness and pith, the crisp snap of color tempered by weathered texture.
At heart, this series is about savoring immediacy. The paintings invite viewers to feel the temperature of color, to trace the hand in the surface, and to find rhythm in the small distances between one mark and the next.
