Artist Statement

I love to paint. It’s a quiet, peaceful world.

My ideas come from everywhere I look. I visit galleries and museums all over the world and read art books of the Masters and other artists. Nature and the environment have all the elements of shape, line and color. I see the physical world not in “real” terms, but I see my surroundings as hard and soft lines and shapes rich and textured, dark and light values, warm and cool and earthen colors. When I look at a tree I see negative space between leaves and limbs. The sky in the background becomes an abstract shape. Helen Frankenthaler said “(a) great painting is a well ordered collision of shapes and colors”. I like that description.

An often-asked question is how do I get started on a new painting? Something in my internal or external environment catches my attention. For example, there was a billboard outside my studio window with a black and white photograph of Martin Luther King in a pensive mood with only his head, arm and shoulder showing. It was obvious that this great man was contemplating his dream, but I perceived it as a wonderfully bold, abstract composition of dark and light, shadows and lines. When planning how to bring life to the canvas that day, I started with dark and light washes of bold forms breaking up the space as in the photograph. Twelve hours later the painting had evolved into landscape full of color in an unconventional order, more reminiscent of an abstract interpretation of the rolling hills of the Palouse. But the billboard had been the catalyst.

I go to my studio everyday and paint no matter how I feel. Within minutes of washing the first color onto the white surface an energy drives me to work the painting through to the end. The end is when chaos comes into order. Because I experiment so much I discard a lot of the work. In my earlier years of painting I would feel threatened by a blank, white surface. In the last few years I look at a perfectly prepped canvas and get excited, anticipating what life it will take on.

Because art is so personal I do not title my work. Titles restrict viewers who may get more preoccupied by what is meant by that title rather than allowing emotions to shape their visual experience.

Another frequently asked question is which are my favorite paintings. They are the ones I choose to share and the ones that are still inside me.