Thoughts on the Process
I look for the out in the open secrets in nature: thick atmosphere, the patterning of a forest, flat light, wetness, charged air and color that layers itself endlessly on objects. Earth has its marks, endless nuances, and these are the muse for my own marks and for my work.
A winter thicket covered at dawn with hoary frost or the underside of an ancient tree uprooted in a damp forest challenge me to focus on what at first might seem insignificant: the oddity of a moment in portrait, the land as still life. My landscapes are portraits of an instant and they are self portraits as I paint my own direct experience of nature and, inevitably, my own core values.
I strive to create an unsettling, restive and spiritual atmosphere in my work: evocative views of nature and the land’s mark. As I restructure nature’s architecture I hope to tempt the viewer to reorganize their own assumptions about the visible and not so visible world. The paintings are still life, paint patterns, mosaics of earthly detritus.
In the current work I challenge myself to push and pull through space, developing forms from the bones out. I penetrate flat space, exploring light, mass, color and edge to re-imagine the familiar elements of the landscape. I use my own mark and the physicality of the medium to establish a decided psychological edginess.
Staying on the surface - charging the paint with a large share of the conversation - building the place - charging the painter
A winter thicket covered at dawn with hoary frost or the underside of an ancient tree uprooted in a damp forest challenge me to focus on what at first might seem insignificant: the oddity of a moment in portrait, the land as still life. My landscapes are portraits of an instant and they are self portraits as I paint my own direct experience of nature and, inevitably, my own core values.
I strive to create an unsettling, restive and spiritual atmosphere in my work: evocative views of nature and the land’s mark. As I restructure nature’s architecture I hope to tempt the viewer to reorganize their own assumptions about the visible and not so visible world. The paintings are still life, paint patterns, mosaics of earthly detritus.
In the current work I challenge myself to push and pull through space, developing forms from the bones out. I penetrate flat space, exploring light, mass, color and edge to re-imagine the familiar elements of the landscape. I use my own mark and the physicality of the medium to establish a decided psychological edginess.
Staying on the surface - charging the paint with a large share of the conversation - building the place - charging the painter