From the vaults of T.S. Minton:
Artwork of the week

In the months to come, I will be breaking loose with some choice selections of material from my various phases as an artist...from the 70s to the present. Some periods have been more prolific than others, some more figurative, and many pieces are beyond easy classification (blurring the boundaries between abstraction, surrealism, cartooning, and more academic rendering). Below are two pieces from the mid-90s, when I was immersed in a self-study of the classic drawing system The Natural Way to Draw by Kimon Nicolaides. After hours of rigorous practice following Nicolaides' lessons on gestures, contours, form, etc. I often would unwind and let my own muse flow in pieces like these. His influence was still keenly felt in these more expressive sessions, and I was also impressed by the statement of Tucson artist George Welch (who was my instructor in an oil painting class at Pima Community College circa spring 1993) , who told me that effective abstractions must take natural forms as their starting point. While I'm under no obligation to listen to any "musts," and I'll record here that most of my art teachers and professors over the years I've found to be tedious pedants who mainly just squelched my natural inclinations and gifts, Nicolaides and Welch did help me elevate my artistic game (in Welch's case more for his own impressive abstract work and aforementioned statement, rather than what I found to be his overly discursive teaching methods).

- TSM

"Entrance", 1994.

"Flora Too Can Yearn", 1995.

(C) T.S. Minton