Artist Statement My work looks to nature. I delight in and respond to quiet landscapes, gardens, woodlands. Today, more than ever, I feel that we need spiritual replenishment, a slowing down, a reconnection to nature’s beauty that still does exist though many live urban lives far from the land.
Images of gardens in particular connect us to those who came before—those who have nurtured the landscape, built beauty, created places of retreat, and sought the original garden.
The poetry of nature and descriptions of the quality of light in poems such as Gerard Manley Hopkins’, “Pied Beauty,” Emily Dickinson’s, “There’s a certain slant of light,” or Rilke’s Blue Hydrangeas, echo in my head while I paint. “Glory be to God for dappled things.” “Shadows hold their breath. . ..” “. . . see how the pathetic blue rejoices in the green.”
I am also nourished by listening to and playing music, and by working in my own garden,
All scenes in my paintings are real and familiar to me. Paintings of landscapes and gardens abroad all depict places where I stood for hours drawing and painting.
I study contemporary art and keep current by attending shows wherever possible and closely perusing various art publications. I admire work that is very different from mine, and am particularly moved by the work of Lucian Freud and Anselm Keifer, Art that is introspective or brings the viewer a new way of seeing is valid no matter the subject or style.