My Process, a Photo-Essay by Carson Collins

This is where I live (digital photograph).

This is what I paint (cropped and enlarged from the photograph above).

This is a typical result (not based directly on any photograph; I don’t even own a camera).

My paintings, while they may appear realistic to some people and in certain contexts , are actually highly abstracted. This can be sen very clearly when they are viewed side-by side with a photograph of the same subject matter.

I use the patterns and colors in the sky near the horizon and on the surface of the water to derive a plastic vocabulary with which to express myself as a painter.