Daniel Phill

My abstract botanical paintings are suggestive interpretations of vegetation and flowers. Images from nature are usually loosely incorporated within a landscape. My interest in depicting imagery through the lens of abstraction informs my process. The ambiguity created by the composing and dissolving of forms creates a tension between abstraction, figuration, and the illusion of space.

In these paintings, I am drawn to the interplay of an optimistic color palette against a placid background to create painterly botanical environments. These relationships of colors and shapes not typically associated with the depictions of flowers are of great interest to me. My paintings evolve over the course of many layers of paint, obliterating and revealing past histories of thought and action.

Through pouring, dripping, scraping and smearing various viscosities of paint, I work to achieve an image that is organic and spontaneous. Raised levels of paint play an active role in defining form and establishing biomorphic shapes. Extended drips of paint serve to imply stems, while gestural, paint-loaded brush strokes suggest petals and blossoms. Through gesture and perception, I create work that is both organic and unrehearsed. My goal is to create works that play between the boundaries of abstraction and representation.

Daniel Phill's work consists of paintings that continue his contemporary exploration of American Abstract Expressionism through the use of botanical imagery.  His bold botanicals have gained the attention of Art in America magazine, which calls them "energetic" and "calmly sinuous."  These elements of his work create dramatic tension in his imagery, giving his paintings a "frantic and brilliant life," says ARTnewsmagazine.  Daniel Phill holds a Masters of Fine Arts in Painting from Stanford University and a Bachelors Degree from the San Francisco Art Institute.  His work is included in the permanent collection of the California Palace of the Legion of Honor Museum in San Francisco, the De Saisset Museum in Santa Clara, the Haggerty Museum in Milwaukee, and the Tucson Museum, as well as numerous private and corporate collections.