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Painter Steve Mauldin

Writer's picture: JaamZIN CreativeJaamZIN Creative
Mar 12, 20202 min read

“Color Wave Study No. 2 (Fringe)”: This piece was the second study for the “Poles” series. In the first study, I had used a very regular curve which I found dull, so in this one I used a more interesting curve (which is actually half of one of the figures from the “Presence” series). I also tightened the spacing between the bands of colors compared to the first study since they hadn’t seemed to do what I wanted in it. Although I was happy with the spacing and how the color worked in this one, I still didn’t feel like it was interesting enough for the series I had in mind. In the next piece (the first of the series proper), I flipped the curve to make the positive/negative figures that define the series. As in all the pieces represented, the paint was slung from an extra-fine straight pin onto the canvas at very high speed, which is what creates the super-fine mark.
“Color Wave Study No. 2 (Fringe)”: This piece was the second study for the “Poles” series. In the first study, I had used a very regular curve which I found dull, so in this one I used a more interesting curve (which is actually half of one of the figures from the “Presence” series). I also tightened the spacing between the bands of colors compared to the first study since they hadn’t seemed to do what I wanted in it. Although I was happy with the spacing and how the color worked in this one, I still didn’t feel like it was interesting enough for the series I had in mind. In the next piece (the first of the series proper), I flipped the curve to make the positive/negative figures that define the series. As in all the pieces represented, the paint was slung from an extra-fine straight pin onto the canvas at very high speed, which is what creates the super-fine mark.

I was born in Nashville, Tennessee on July 4, 1952. I spent a rather idyllic childhood living in the country near Macon, Georgia where I started drawing at about the age of seven, got my first oil painting set at about ten, and some time in-between, first saw an exhibition of Leonardo da Vinci’s engineering exploits. I was sold; I wanted to be an artist and thinker.

“Three Three”: This piece, like all the pieces in the “Presence” series, is built on the Golden Mean. The figures are placed at Golden Mean divisions or subdivisions of the picture plane as are all the “nodes” in the background web (which are actually at intersections of Golden mean divisions and subdivisions of the picture plane). The web itself is inspired by the distribution of galaxies and galaxy clusters in the early universe. As in all the pieces represented, the paint was slung from an extra-fine straight pin onto the canvas at very high speed, which is what creates the super-fine mark.
“Three Three”: This piece, like all the pieces in the “Presence” series, is built on the Golden Mean. The figures are placed at Golden Mean divisions or subdivisions of the picture plane as are all the “nodes” in the background web (which are actually at intersections of Golden mean divisions and subdivisions of the picture plane). The web itself is inspired by the distribution of galaxies and galaxy clusters in the early universe. As in all the pieces represented, the paint was slung from an extra-fine straight pin onto the canvas at very high speed, which is what creates the super-fine mark.

During high school, I attended a college preparatory boarding school with an extensive art program and was able to pursue my interest in art, including painting. From there, I went to Oklahoma City University where I majored in art and received a Bachelor of Arts degree with honors in 1974. While there, I also met my soon-to-be wife, Cindy, and two years after graduating, we moved to Portland, Oregon. In 1979, I took a side trip to the University of Idaho where I was granted a teaching assistantship and, in 1981, received a Master of Fine Arts degree with a concentration in painting and printmaking. Cindy and I have lived in Portland ever since, with the exception of four years when I taught at the now defunct St. Gregory's University in Shawnee, Oklahoma. I have been an actively producing painter since 1974.

“PREIMP 10A”: Whenever I begin to work on the “main” piece I’m creating, I have to sling some paint onto another surface to warm up the tool and to see what this particular color is going to do (they all differ due to their viscosity). For years, I had done this on mis-printed printer paper and thrown it in the trash. I got tired of wasting so much paint, so I began drawing six square grids onto good, rag-based paper and started slinging the paint onto them. I’m able to freely explore the optical mixing of color as the fine skeins of paint overlap and people have responded very strongly to them. I have sold quite a few. I never know what they will look like since the color are defined by the other “main” piece that I’m painting at the time. As in all the pieces represented, the paint was slung from an extra-fine straight pin onto the canvas at very high speed, which is what creates the super-fine mark.
“PREIMP 10A”: Whenever I begin to work on the “main” piece I’m creating, I have to sling some paint onto another surface to warm up the tool and to see what this particular color is going to do (they all differ due to their viscosity). For years, I had done this on mis-printed printer paper and thrown it in the trash. I got tired of wasting so much paint, so I began drawing six square grids onto good, rag-based paper and started slinging the paint onto them. I’m able to freely explore the optical mixing of color as the fine skeins of paint overlap and people have responded very strongly to them. I have sold quite a few. I never know what they will look like since the color are defined by the other “main” piece that I’m painting at the time. As in all the pieces represented, the paint was slung from an extra-fine straight pin onto the canvas at very high speed, which is what creates the super-fine mark.

In 1985, I began teaching painting and drawing in the Continuing Education program at the Pacific Northwest College of Art, and, in 1987, basic design, drawing and painting at Mt. Hood Community College. I taught at the PNCA until 2011 and until 2018 at MHCC when I retired. Altogether, I taught at the PNCA for twenty years and at MHCC for twenty-seven. I continue to paint.


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