Joe Orr

Recording my visual experience with paint is my inspiration. Trying to record the way light moves across a form has never stopped fascinating me. For me, each painting is a visual account of the image in nature.

Because I was raised in the southwest, I am a labelled regional painter. Painting the light of the desert is a unique challenge because it is almost unfiltered by the atmosphere and the value and intensity of colors change from brilliant to “bleached out” in a remarkably short time. Painting on location in the desert, I learned I had to transcribe my instinctual reactions to the landscape quickly. To facilitate the immediacy of recording the seeing experience, I use a mobile studio fully equipped with all my painting tools and supplies. Some of the benefits of a mobile studio include being out of the elements, the avoidance of unwanted interruptions by curious onlookers, and the ability to paint larger.