FEEDING THE BIRDs

Paul Hously’s paintings always sort of strike me as these very particular moments. The birds swirling about you as the light was hitting the mountains just so. The lady walking by in the purple coat as you tied your shoe. And yet, the surface of his canvases show a lot of reworking, often textured like stucco as he lays paint over paint over paint, sort of the opposite of spontaneous, even labored, but never tortured. What I imagine is a circular process, addressing the piece again and again almost like a prayer, then stopping only when a little magical accident happens. The reflection in the water of the lake, the schmear-y, icing-like globs of the knife. The colors and shapes not at all as they were, but as they felt - a little out of focus, a little off kilter and endlessly alive.