About the Paintings:
The main difference between easel painting as opposed to mural painting is that here I'm not limited by a brief and have total freedom to paint what I like.

I try to involve the viewer directly by using perspective and a viewpoint in a similar way to trompe l'oeil, and I have spoken more about this under "Perspective" below.
Although some of these paintings are trompe l'oeil, most do not have the defining border that a trompe on a panel would need.

Light and atmosphere are equally important elements.

Some paintings are used to test a theory of some kind, and the subject is often created as a vehicle for a test, but the most important part of painting for me is to be able to use it as a form of expression and communication.
Paintings can condense an idea or emotion into an image that can portray something that can't be described using words.

Medium and Materials:
All of these paintings are painted using artists oils and are mostly painted on stretched canvas on cedar stretchers with the exception of "Sleepy Hollow" which was painted on MDF, and "Elf in a Wine Barrel", which was painted on a wine barrel.

Perspective:
The perspective in most of the paintings is calculated to look right from a particular viewing position. When viewed from this position, the viewer should be able to feel like they are part of the scene, looking around in it as if looking around in real life.
This isn't apparent in small reproductions because proportionally the viewer would be much farther away from the image than if viewing it life size.

Perspective in easel paintings is normally more complicated than in murals because the painting can represent a view looking up or down at various angles creating 3 point perspective rather than 1 or 2 point in murals.