Tim McFarlane's influences

I first saw Tim McFarlane's work two years ago at Bridgette Mayer's booth at the Red Dot Fair . I remember looking around and seeing his work leaning against the floor. His work speaks to me, has a freshness and an authenticity that is exciting.By the way there is a great new interview with him at Brenthallards Blog.



Gravity's Architecture, 2009, acrylic on panel, 16" x 16"



Tim 's work will be in the Touch Faith Group show curated by Jeffrey Cortland Jones in November 09 at Semantics in Cincinnati, OH. He will also be included in an Untitled group show in Baltimore, MD at Area 405 . He is represented by Bridgette Mayer Gallery at 709 Walnut Street, 1st Floor Philadelphia, PA, 1910




LIttle Speaker Groove, 2009, acrylic on canvas, 36" x 36"


Another Place, 2009, acrylic on panel, 36" x 36"

About my work: Abstraction that references man-made and natural environments is my primary interest. The loose, grid-like forms employed in my works reflect the known world, but are not direct interpretations of it. Instead, the architecture of man and nature provide a starting point for my investigations. The paintings and works on paper are built up in layers, with each successive layer being influenced by the previous ones. Color and composition are the main aesthetic organizational concerns of my works. Loosely painted linear and grid-like forms have dominated my work for several years and continue to do so in various manners. My surroundings provide the templates with which my paintings and works on paper are built. Filtered through experience, observation, and memory, the works become the means for a dialogue that reflects personal experience but are hopefully open-ended enough to allow for possible multiple readings.

Pour, 2008, acrylic on panel, 16" x 16"

Tim says:
Influences: This is tough because I'm all over the place in terms of influences.

1. Cezanne
2. Matisse
3. Monet
4. Chardin
5. Philip Glass
6. Richard Serra
7. Franz Kline
8. Wilem de Kooning
9. Susan Rothenberg
10. Degas
11. Brice Marden
12. Sean Scully
13. Photography
14. Graphic design
15.Music: experimental, glitchy electronic music, house, minimal techno, jazz, rock, underground hip-hop and anything else that perks up my ears and helps things along in the studio.




TThis Moment (view from vault room door), 2009, acrylic on walls, dimeffnsions variable

What artists have influenced you ? Diane McGregor

Diane McGregor is an artist who lives and works in Santa Fe.
She is currently in a group show of 5 abstract painters, that opened
July 10th and is up through Sept 27th, at The Preston Contemporary
Art Center in Mesilla, NM. You can see more work at
her blog Working Space.



Conferring with the Moon, 2009, oil on canvas, 30x30 inches

Here is what she says about her work:


"My work is informed by Nature—specifically the landscape, the weather, the seasons. These images are not literal representations of a place or environment, but a synthesis of shifting viewpoints and moods. Painting is my way of going beyond the arguments of the conscious mind, allowing the brushstroke to be a quiet reflection of each moment. The painting, then, becomes a record of a solitary, contemplative practice that is both private and shared.

I begin each painting by methodically weaving together horizontal and vertical brushstrokes. This repetitive technique generates a grid-like structure during the very earliest stages of the painting. I use fan brushes, which lend a delicate, complex weave to the webs of color and light. As the composition gradually emerges from the matrix of layered brushstrokes, a subtle balance of form, color, and texture is intuitively recognized and responded to. Some areas of the composition are carefully blended into luminous color fields, while other passages remain more painterly and spontaneous. The process is extremely meditative, taking me back and forth between emptiness and fullness, surrender and control."

Sensing, 2009, oil on canvas, 12 x 12 inches


"Crossing," 2009, oil on canvas, 18x18 inches


Here is my list of my top 15 artistic influences (not in any particular order):

1) Rebecca Purdum - contemporary artist who I've been following since the 80s - ethereal abstraction (shows at Tilton Gallery, NYC)

2) Sam Scott - my professor at University of Arizona, initiated me to the true painter's life and art

3) 12th Century Chinese Southern Song painters - poetry of nature and the seasons, veiling and unveiling of forms, contemplative technique

4) Georgia O'Keeffe - paint handling, morphology of forms (the major influence upon my early work)

5) Agnes Martin - repetition, natural order, poetry of painting, the grid

6) Mondrian- composition, subtle balances and rhythms within geometric structures

7) Jackson Pollock - the spontaneous gesture; the importance of psychology and the unconscious

8) Rothko - the luminosity of color

9) Bonnard - light and color, paint handling

10) Turner - abstraction of landscape, use of thick and thin paint, use of light and dark

11) Kandinsky - for the spiritual in art

12) Cezanne - the importance of the underlying structure of a painting

13) Monet - the way he perceived light and color, the broken brushstroke

14) Donald Judd - clean lines, no-nonsense Beauty, repetition, transcending the grid

15) Joan Mitchell - abstraction of nature, luscious use of paint, use of the white ground, importance of the single brushstroke

Thanks for the opportunity - this was a fun and challenging project!

Butterfly's Dream, 2009, oil on canvas, 24x19 inches