My artwork has always drawn inspiration from the natural world. I’m awed by the raw beauty and the drama of untamed places, and my heart and mind are drawn to them. Silence is an inspiring presence in remote places, and I work to bring that presence to life in my paintings. Likewise, stillness and movement are intrinsic elements in nature, and their expression is important in my work. Yet I live in an urban world. I spend my days exploring my relationship to the landscapes that I’m in and the landscapes in my memory and imagination.
To begin a painting, I'll pick a color, a shape, a sketch, or perhaps a photograph to serve as a departure point. This inspiration is then consumed by the painting. The properties of color compel the work. I start with one color, then add another and respond to their interaction. Another color brings new interactions. From there, the painting develops its own life as relationships expand, and as the whole begins to express a feeling of place.
I might work on ten paintings simultaneously. In the studio, I surround myself with paintings in various stages of development. I spend long periods looking at their colors, shapes, and the evolving relationships. When I begin to feel a spark, I act to enliven it. I may obliterate surface images, methodically work detail into an area, or repetitiously sculpt marks with paint. I appreciate sweeping gestural paint strokes, thickly applied, as much as thin translucent layering. I enjoy combining different methods of applying paint because it sets up the challenge of resolving their relationship to one another. Compositional structure can come from geometric or organic shapes, but organic shapes predominate, as reflected in nature. Shape and color set the stage for a delicate balance of serendipity and intention. In each proceeding painting, I let chance and intention work together to refine an expression of the world that is always new, yet known, to me.
In the end, it all comes back to creating a provocative assemblage of color and form, expressing, and enlivened by, my relationship to the natural world.