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Artist Statement

          First and foremost, I want to entertain my audience and in so doing share the joy that I feel, experience an affirmation of  life when I capture that  moment of sunlight refracted on the shape on my canvas.  I want to cause an emotional response,

a joyous response in my viewer, and have the 

viewer feel the same excitment that I do when my eyes alight on a banquet of color and beauty.

         A few strokes of a brush create a pattern of light against a darker value and an entire illusion is created!  What breathtaking magic!  My work is largely representational, loosely rendered still lifes, flora, fauna or anything else that captures my imagination. I like to arrange objects to create a visual rhythm by using repetition of shapes and/or color.  I also enjoy the complexity of reflections, transparencies and refracted light.

         Color is of prime interest as it sets the mood and energy of the painting. I love bright, intense colors and I like them to mix on the paper rather than premixing as it achieves  much more exciting results.

        There is nothing more life sustaining than water; such a basic yet simple and pure element

and when color is added something wonderfully

spontaneous occurs.  It is an instantaneously glorious medium for conveying luminosity through

layers of translucent color. And this in spite of any amount of saturation.  

       The most exciting step in the painting process is the visualization and preparation stage. I spend a great deal of time thinking, visualizing and trying new color combinations before jumping in and I find that it is time well spent. I am a purist concering the colors that I use, however I have no issue with special effects achieved via salt, spraying and certainly avail myself of the practicality of masking fluid. Every so often I like to try new techniques to push myself out of my comfort zone and remind myself that I need to keep evolving, growing and improving as an artist.

      While mostly allowing the medium to have its own way in my backgrounds I enjoy setting up rather tight still lifes because they afford me the opportunity to create my own reality. I like to render every day objects as larger than life and in so doing perhaps elicit that "wow" moment from the viewer.

     What I am after, is to capture that magical moment of sunlight..........that fleeting moment when light and shadow patterns are at their maximum intensity.