My childhood love of art projects, though temporarily put aside at some points in my life, has survived and grown into a central focus of my time and energy. I have experimented with a variety of artistic media and have enjoyed all of them but find that I'm happiest with a brush in my hand. I work in both oils and watercolors, and am particularly drawn to the interplay of light and colors, found in virtually any subject matter, whether landscape, still life, or figurative.
Painting offers so many satisfactions: the fresh beginning posed by every blank canvas and palette of freshly squeezed paint; the moment when an image starts to emerge and take on a life of its own; the opportunity to lose oneself in a process that is both stimulating and calming; the pride when a painting turns out well and even the "teachable moments" presented by the pieces that go disastrously wrong. Even when not painting, the close observation entailed in learning to "see like an artist" enhances my awareness and appreciation of the visual world I see potential paintings everywhere I look.
Like all artists, I have been taught, influenced, and inspired by others. Ultimately, however, painting offers the chance to create and share something uniquely my own, reflecting the way I see the world.
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"Anything under the sun is beautiful if you have the vision–it is the seeing of the thing that makes it so.... It is the artist's business, the painter's job, to point out to the public the beauties of nature."
Charles W. Hawthorne, Painter and Art Teacher (1872-1930)
