My own approach to painting comes out of a
varied career that has included science, business and art. For me, beginning each painting is like a new experiment. A reference
is always used as starting material, but I do not know exactly where the painting will be going once it is underway. Nor am
I completely certain of how it will get there. Each statement demands the next and follows another. Where the painting goes
is often a surprise. Usually something new and unexpected becomes apparent as the work unfolds.
Originally in the sixties, my work was concerned
with the design of interlocking shapes, values and color. And it is so again, only now my paintings have expanded to include
content, mostly as metaphor. I feel strongly that this kind of content is an important contribution to the
message. Aside from what is imparted by content and placement of forms, much of the rest is involved in exercising the craft
of painting. I believe that this craft must be mastered in order for the painter to have proper tools for expression.
In addition to painting, it has been my good
fortune to be guiding and teaching others in the use of these tools. And in the process, I get to watch and be close to my
students' adventures. I find a strange synergy often happens, in which we all continue to discover ourselves anew.
H. Max Horbund, Closter, NJ
