While the expected elements of nature – land, sea and sky – are generally present in my landscapes, they are often punctuated by architectural or other manmade elements… an open window, breeze-blown laundry on a line, ancient pottery, a hastily abandoned table or chair, a garden wall, a doorway. For me, these are timeless symbols of the interactions that occur between natural and human forces. They tell stories of what has been or what is about to be. They evoke the spirits of the places that most inspire me and provide windows into the lives of the people who inhabit them.
I approach each sheet of white paper subtractively, like a sculptor confronting a white block of marble. I think about the marks I will make on on it’s surface, but I think just as much about the shapes that will be left behind by those marks. I use a pigment-laden, wet-on-wet technique to create tension between the warmth of open, direct sunlight and the coolness of light reflected in shadow. I apply wet-over-dry glazes to maximize the light reflected to the viewer‘s eye from within the layers of the painting.
