The inspiration for my artwork comes from several sources.The natural world provides infinite variations of beauty, textures, patterns, color. Some images I choose to paint emphasize detail, repetitive patterns, maybe abstraction.Other images are more about atmosphere, sense of place.Sometimes I choose images because they express pure beauty and provide emotion in ways only nature can provide.
Just as nature is permanent and everlasting, it is also temporary, fleeting and ever changing, be it clouds, shadows, light.The physical changes in nature, erosion, weather caused, man made, interest me greatly as well.The edge, be it sea cliffs or mountain tops excites me, perhaps due to my being a California native.Sometimes all of these factors play roles in a single painting.The incredible diversity of nature provides endless sources of inspiration for me, and consequently I costantly vary my focus in my paintings.Nature deserves close scrutiny and attention to detail in order to celebrate and portray the uniqueness of specific images.My hope is to represent nature as honestly and accurately as I can, and translate that toprovide inspiration for the viewer.
My design strategy is established after I have determined the subject. My compositions are usually shaped by referring to and combining elements of my photoraphy. Design for me means creating dynamic shapes and patterns that provide initial interest for the viewerbefore the details become apparent. Mundane subjects can become exciting images due to careful positioning of slopes, hillsides or shorelines. More often nature’s perfection of color and pattern, very often repetitive, suggests compositions.Shadows are a major element of my paintings and they create tremendous design elements on their own.I feel fortunate to have the landscape be my primary subject because most important aspects in good art, including design, lay before you, to be appreciated, absorbed, and translated to two dimensions.
My working process usually begins with hiking.My paintings are the result of attempting to capture the specific essence of a place or scene, often with reference to various photographs I’ve taken.I begin in my studio painting the composition loosely.With each successive layer of paint I tighten up the details.I liken the effect to watching an old polaroid photo very slowly coming into focus.For me the desired result requires a slow buildup of multitudes of semi-transparent layers and glazes of paint.
Close scrutiny and observation of details are necessary for me to attempt to make my paintings believable. It is all the little details that create the whole image, and none of them can be ignored. I think consistency within the painting is an important ingredient to success. The landscape is specific, not generic, and is a most worthy subject deserving of being presented that way.
