The 48-year-old literally pours the paint onto gigantic wooden surfaces he has created and placed on the floor of his studio. The finished product is never touched by a brush or even a hand, although, occasionally a Shop-Vac comes in when a color gets out of control.

Risselada, a Hampstead-based artist, who works as the head waiter at Tersiguel's restaurant on Main Street, has been pouring it on for "a long time" and he does so for nothing more than the joy of creating.

His paintings are three-dimensional with relief sections sticking out an inch above the base of the painting. This is to affect how the paint moves. In one series of paintings the relief section was based off of a map of Bethany Beach for a couple who had commissioned a piece for their summer home there.

Another patron, Ann Donahue of Clarksville, said the paintings "transmit something very real through the abstract." She added that the painting she bought with her husband "speaks to us of sheer joy."

Risselada, a lean man of average height with close-cropped salt-and-pepper hair and a goatee to match, frequently uses maps and nautical charts for the base of his paintings, but he is quick to stress that "they aren't conceptual paintings. These aren't my statement about the condition of the water and the world. It's purely visual."

The artist has also used sycamore bark and patterns from his own hardwood floors for inspiration.

His home for the past eight years has been a converted barn in Hampstead. This gives him enough space to spread out, which he sorely needs, since some of his paintings can be over twelve feet wide, though recently he has been working with smaller four foot by six foot pieces.

His home displays his passions. The inside is ninety percent studio and only ten percent living space. The outside is a beautifully manicured lawn full of carefully tended shrubs and bushes. The yard is just another way he has of expressing himself. "I get to make visual choices," he said.

Labor of Love

Risselada's other hobby is his job. Working at Tersiguel's is "a chance to nurture people - take care of them." he said. "I love doing that."

"He's the most creative of the servers here. When he's describing food É he paints a picture with his words," said Tim Yungwirth, a bartender at Tersiguel's.

He nurtures his paintings too, or worries over them incessantly, depending on what mood he's in when talking about them. Risselada has to leave his house while the paint is drying; otherwise he'll become obsessed with trying to affect the outcome.

Risselada picks his paints by leaving dozens of buckets of paint in one corner of his studio in no discernable order. He strolls on top of the buckets looking down at their painted lids to find unique color combinations. To keep the colors random, he buys from the mismatched paint section of Home Depot, where improperly mixed paints are resold at discounted prices.

After the shape of the base and the palate has been selected, the artist tries to have as small a hand in the process as possible. "I'm really relying on the paint to interact." Messing with the painting is "toying with its integrity," Risselada said.

A native of Holland, Michigan, Risselada came to Maryland to get his masters of fine art from The Maryland Institute College of Art, after graduating from the Cleveland Institute of Art with his bachelor's degree.

He lives alone and has rarely visited Michigan after his mother passed away from Alzheimer's three years ago. His sister comes to visit occasionally, he said.

Risselada is sometimes in awe of his own finished product. "You're standing in front of this thing that evolved on its own. You don't se my hand in it. It sort of created itself."

The work is "always a surprise," he said, "I don't know what I have until it's up on the wall."

"If I wouldn't want it in my home," he said, he'll "either toss it or change it."

Color is really the emphasis of these paintings. Risselada compares his painting to the purely visceral experience of watching fire works. "We always react to color emotionally," he said.

Much of Risselada's work, especially the process, begs comparison to the famous artist Jackson Pollack. But while Pollack's work was more philosophical, Risselada believes his work to purely instinctive.

He mostly listens to NPR while he paints. He said he has become interested in politics over recent years, because he feels that a conversation in the background helps him concentrate on his painting.

Risselada is currently gearing up for a big push to sell some of his paintings. While he has been in gallery shows before, he said that this time he's looking to go through interior designers who will sell his work to their clients.

It seems the main reason Risselada is looking to sell his art is so he has room to make more. "The reason I want to make the next painting is so I get to do it again," he said.

Pictures of Risselada's work, along with contact information, can be found at www.pouredpaint.com.