I paint and draw every day – most of the time outdoors, whenever and wherever. I also continue to carve wood, based on natural themes. I enjoy the experiences that nature provides during the various seasons of the year, and in recent years have exhibits of my paintings with that in mind.
My artwork is evolving experientially; working outside so much, in all kinds of weather, has slowly instilled in me an interest in what the weather conditions cause to happen; particularly in weather extremes. For instance, if it is very cold or rainy, how conditions will affect the compositional outcome of the picture. For instance, if it’s very cold outside, I am interested in what effects will occur on the watercolor sheet if the watercolor freezes, or the colors run if it's rainy.
I welcome the accidents that nature often provides. The natural world is a never-ending source of inspiration and artistic variety; essentially, and changing weather conditions allow me to enter into a 'dialogue' with the view, that contributes significantly to the compositional moment.
Although my technical approaches follow a traditional underpainting foundation, I have recently been laying in brighter stronger, primary colors at the underpainting stage, and later modulate the colors with wet into wet painting to establish a more luminous effect, and a greater depth of field.
By working in this manner, I feel the images seem to emerge from the canvas or paper, in a sense evolve from nature; not so much as an attempt to replicate what I see, but to transform and intensify what I see in nature, into a moment of poetic intuition.
