Don Gray paintings

Landscapes, casein paintings of Oak Creek rocks, tree roots. "In these casein paintings, the rock and tree roots are as obvious a pictorial and expressive focus as the cabbages and melons in other paintings. The familiar concept of empathy is at work here. In painting, it is the idea that the artist identifies with particular objects in his pictures. This is key to understanding many artists’ work. It certainly is important in going beyond the surface of my paintings. While the rock is isolated, even lonely, amid the swirling water, and the tree roots speak of the travail of life (the rushing waters have stripped the earth away), I found great pleasure in the continuous roar of the creek as I painted, and the tiny lizards that cavorted on other rocks and tree trunks. Oak Creek runs through a gorgeous canyon in central Arizona, continuing south through Sedona, into the pasture land to the west."