Slater is a painter first. The studio is not a place he goes occasionally, it is the central fact of the practice. He has maintained a continuous studio for decades.
His work moves between abstraction and figuration, building through successive bodies of work that push against the limits of the last. The materials are traditional: linen, rabbit skin glue, marble dust gesso, lead white. The approach is physical and layered.
In winter, conditions in the Provincetown studio become extreme. The unheated space means cold, damp air, and concrete floors. He paints through it. The conditions are not obstacles, they are part of what the work becomes.
That winter, 2025 to 2026, produced Concrete Winter — thirteen paintings and, unexpectedly, a 319-page musical. The studio made him both.