Coffee Morning

This painting, Coffee Morning, was an exercise in repetition and restraint. Alternating eight stripes of warm chocolate brown with eight stripes of a more muted grey brown. Trying not to vary the color nor texture of each stripe. The result was something dense and uniform—like looking into a cup of joe. Which is uniformly dark, but with a trace of movement. Brush strokes were consistent left to right, and from a distance the painting read as a whole, with consistent texture.

In the end, these pieces felt more iconic—should I say “elegant”? Although, I do not like this word. Maybe refined, or filtered? My inclination toward creating restrained color fields continued, rooted in timeless moments.

–STELIOS author of The Oculus