The solidity of a mountain peak jutting out of fog, the waves breaking in a green grey ocean, telephone wires cutting across the blue sky, and the deep shadows of afternoon light are my inspiration. I try to create paintings that feel alive, in the way that jumping into cold water or lying on grass makes you feel more connected to the moment and your environment. That it feels like that moment when you look up.
I let the physicality of medium — the bleeding pigment of the watercolors run and create clouds, light, space, and waves. Or I use the thick painterly quality of the oils work to create solid mountains, expressive light-touched clouds, and still bodies of water. The medium, a sense of mood and color, and my physical experience with place guide the process. I try to capture a moment within the paint: the moon on a clear night, the heaviness of storm clouds approaching, the scratchy texture of dried grass in the wind, or the arc of a tree in shadow dappled with pure streaks of afternoon light. I also use collage to build a world physically within the paint, connecting words and paper to the landscapes I create.
These are all places I’ve been — or go to regularly. Some of them are so well known to me that I see them in all seasons and times of day and I want to share how I feel when it strikes me once again that there is so much beauty in the world.