at the easel

My painting captures the essence of light and water, resting on the line between abstraction and representation. I consider the forms created by ripples in a pond or the lines of receding waves a foundation for further deconstruction of the images I paint.

It is the behavior of water that perpetually engages me. I paint images of streams, channels, ponds, rivers, and seas, capturing their varying qualities. Fundamentally, it is change that I am painting; the truthful presence of change in all its permutations and finding the tipping point between the conceptual and tangible.

I always consider the composition before I begin sketching. I build up colors, creating composite hues and letting in light to reveal what I see as the depth of that subject.

Creating a memorable image is important. I seek to make visual representations that grow with the viewer and unravel over a period of time.

I like to provoke the viewer into a heightened awareness of his or her experience in front of the canvas. My recent work highlights questions of proximity that bring the subject right up to the surface of the canvas, almost into the viewer's space. By layering the paint with broad brushstrokes, I invite the audience to appreciate the physical, painterly qualities that form the depth of that experience.