Will Noble

Region: Pacific Coast

Because of the intensive detail of my pieces, I work in the studio from photographs I have taken in the field. My paintings start as highly developed hand drawings - no projection or other technical tricks are used, just my eye and hand working to record what I see. In the drawn state, before the color and value contrast of paint is added, some of my works, with their almost microbial circular patterns, have been seen as celestial. That unitive understructure is still there in the completed work, making the realism in some cases seem almost abstract.

For the past twelve years my subject matter has been water. I am fascinated by its mercurial nature as it dances over rock surface; the interplay of light, reflection, shadow; its transparency and the potential for revelation of rocks below the surface. As I spend much of my day in meditative intimacy with my subject, I cannot help but be ever more deeply aware of water's vital importance and precarious fate in the world. Viewers of my work are offered a chance to both celebrate the beauty of water and reflect on its central place in our lives.