The Dancer (2008) Painting by David Ryan Lopez

I choose the title of each piece at the end of creation or the name unfolds during the process of creation. Generally, I choose not to title what I see in my own mind. I prefer to choose an adjective or verb which exemplifies the energy of the piece. That way I do not identify the piece as I see it but rather leave it up to the observer to make that decision.

My present pour and flow work was influenced by Paul Jenkins, a master pour and flow painter living in Paris, France. His work is more abstract than mine and I enjoy mimicking nature. I have always liked the look of watercolor and now I have been able to create that look on canvas. Pour and flow paintings evolved over many years from florals to landscape to more abstract expression.

In 2008 I moved to South East Asia to pursue more (oriental design) in creation. Pieces like Butterfly and Oriental Garden were the beginnings of experimental paintings of an oriental theme. However my love of nature and art, began and evolved from the beauty of the Mexico and South West deserts of America. As a recluse with a love of nature, I now avoid the politics of pursuing gallery exhibition. I had saved and stored 14 of my favorite paintings, and have decided to present them for exhibit, knowing I cannot take them with me to the afterlife. "My work tends to mimic nature," he said. Lopez rediscovered his passion for creating when he began experimenting with the pour and flow technique in the late 1990’s. Pour and flow is a method of painting in which paint is poured onto the canvas and gravity helps create images without the use of a single paintbrush. Lopez was moved by the impressions he created but stymied by the limitations of the canvas' flat surface. He discovered a new way of working with the pour and flow technique while on a trip to Santa Fe, N.M., where he happened upon the work of an artist who taught him to manipulate the canvas in unexpected ways. He spent the next few months learning the method of lifting, folding and waving the canvas, applying layer upon layer of color, to perfect his visions with dizzying results.

His home today is filled with pieces of work produced in creative bursts that are not unlike the "zone" a runner experiences when exertion becomes effortless. Working without thinking, in something of a trance-like state of being completely "present" in the moment, Lopez has created a body of work filled with ethereal images that, with few exceptions, seem to depict some of nature's most breathtaking scenes. With paintings bearing titles such as "Windstorm," "Slickrock" and "Fire and Ice," Lopez occasionally begins with an idea of what he wants to create. The unpredictable nature of paint pulled by gravity, however, often results in an entirely unexpected image.

It is not uncommon for a single painting to be finished only after more than 20 layers of paint have been applied. With a drying period between applications, the pieces often take days from start to finish. "The canvas speaks back to me when I'm working," Lopez said. "The images depend on the mood. The process of creating is where the passion is." This is for all the marbles; this time it's for passion," Lopez said. "I want to release myself from this tension and go into the freedom of pure creativity. I don't want to wait. I want to do it while I'm young."

Related themes

Ryan LopezPaul JenkinsContemporaryMla Gallery