Peter D. Stephens Mixed Media

"I marvel at the fundamental forces of nature, the laws that determine the structure and behavior of matter, the ways and means of how the world looks the way it does. This interest in the science of the natural world led me to read deeply into the physics behind mechanisms of pattern generation. My painting language is based in these wonderments of systems and outcomes and the mathematics that describe them. These new paintings take form with an underlying grid of commercial paint sample cards. This allows me a spontaneous, interchangeable surface to explore color relationships and interactions within given parameters. The layers of acrylic matrix elements come next, all handwork applied line by line. As with numbers in equations, the quantities, sequences, repetitions, and rhythms all contribute to a rich optical blend of color combinations. A given set of colors results in an exponential number of different perceptions. Along with these pure abstractions of form and color come cultural references to histories of art and design with immediate associations to sumptuous textiles and complex architectural mosaics. The evolution of this work is ongoing, it will change and develop as each new mutation moves the morphology forward. These paintings are not illustrations of specific laws that shape the universe and ourselves but an artist’s answer to their implicit resonances. The paintings translate scientific inspirations into a visual, multilayered landscape that in layer after layer enfold one gradient of reality on another." - Peter Stephens