The landscape and the beauty of nature are intriguing and rich sources of inspiration for my paintings. Due to the variety of colors, textures, shapes, light and sounds through each season, the natural world continually provides incentive for creativity. This awareness is stimulated by a deep connection I feel with the outdoors. Painting is a means of preserving and highlighting what we are rapidly losing in a rapidly changing world.
For me, expressing the landscape isn’t confined to one means. Sometimes a plein air painting, other times a studio painting with abstract elements. Most often with expressive brushwork and strong elements of color exploration. I see the landscape in many of my abstract paintings. While working on an abstract piece, I find that I’m referencing the sky, a horizon line and other aspects of the landscape. In these abstractions, those familiar components are less literally painted.
I enjoy the exploration of surface texture, dripping thin layers of acrylic paint, drawing on the paint surface, interfacing collage media with paint and keeping the brushwork energetic. When I paint I’m thinking about colors, textures, lines, shapes and how they all fit together. Color experimentation and developing figure ground relationships guide me while I investigate the bridge between the natural world and the painted surface.