Landscape is the basis for my work, from which I choose specific moments and small elements for my focus. By becoming intimate with specific sites, the singular character of the setting informs my work.
I begin with the simple act of observing, often with a sketch or small painting. Sometimes the most simple of occurrences: the stray stick fallen across a background of decaying ferns, or the pattern of leaves in a stream; can lead to a series of prints or paintings. In taking those fleeting images back to my studio, as recall fades, imagination takes over and the images begin to change.
Simple patterns such as rain on a pond I see as both an overall pattern and infinite individual compositions of single raindrops disturbing the surface of the pond. Variations and constant change in the color, pattern, texture and light become opportunities for observing the fleeting beauty of the ordinary and the accidental, the common and the sacred.
Building on these observations, my love for materials often jostles for position with the image. My tendency to build and layer, make larger and longer can battle with the intent of making quieter and observed images.
Making art has become a source of quiet refuge in these turbulent times. I am comforted by being able to draw on the landscape to obtain a sense of balance and control in life. My observation and invention on the borrowed landscape renews and replenishes.
