Between Rooms 30″ x 24″ Oil on canvas – NFS Exhibiting Oct. 2026
Every portrait in this body of work explores the relationship between women and their environments, but this concluding piece takes a new approach.
Unlike the others, this figure doesn’t stand facing us. She steps into the assembled fragments around her, glancing back over her shoulder as though pausing between where she’s been and wherever she is headed next.
Rather than describing a single place, the painting gathers together fragments of many places, allowing them to exist side by side. The rooms of the title are metaphorical—assembled from memory, landscape, pattern, flowers, and light. Throughout this series, pieces of the natural world quietly appeared alongside each woman. Mountains, trees, gardens, and open skies became recurring elements, woven among the interiors and patterns that emerged throughout the paintings. In this piece a suggestion of space in a geometric shape and solid color invite possibility, openness and exploration. The symbols of another time or place are balanced with a sense of adventure.
As I painted, this composition changed more than any other in the series. Certain passages disappeared gradually allowing more light and space to enter the painting. In the finished work, an empty chair rests among the fragments, existing somewhere between landscape and interior. It quietly echoes the painting’s sense of transition, offering another opportunity for the imagination to wander.
Perhaps that is why Between Rooms feels like the final portrait. Rather than bringing the story to a close, it leaves the next chapter unwritten, allowing the viewer to imagine what lies beyond these frames.
If this piece resonates with you at all, please reach out. I’d love to hear your comments. This painting joins part of a collection I just completed, and is the final piece in the series.
The Beginning:
Between Rooms began with this 20″ x 16″ oil on panel and the 10″ x 8″ collage on the right that inspired it.
Between Rooms 20″ x 16″ Oil on canvas panel – $1850
Categories: New Paintings, Original oil paintings, People, portraits
