Artist's Statement

The painting process itself is the exciting part of painting to me. Hundreds of decisions and adjustments are being made while painting and the process uses parts of the brain (the so-called "right brain") that I otherwise generally don't use. I imagine it must be like the "runner's high" a long-distance runner experiences well into a run.  There is no other event that brings me to that particular state of mind.

   I look for my "painter's high" while working either on location or in the studio. Outside ("en plein air") there is the joy of being in the elements and the intensity of full-on-focused painting with the demands of changing light and weather.  In the studio, there is a delving into a different, sometimes deeper aesthetic because changing light isn't an element of the studio experience. In the studio there is time to ponder, reflect, and return day after day to the work in progress, developing the painting in a very different way than en plein air.  Also, when working with a model, there is the presence of another person/personality.

   As well as studying plein air methods of painting with artists Kevin Macpherson, Charles Sovek, Scott Christensen, Ovanes Berberian, Richard McDaniels, Alvaro Castagnet and Kim English, and studio model work with Carolyn Anderson, I have had training in purely-creative methods of painting with Michele Cassou.  Depending on my mood, I bring both sides of my training to the work.

   I feel that when we truly love a painting, we are responding to more than the combinations of pigments on a surface.  We are responding to who the artist is and what the artist was experiencing when the work was being done.  We sense the magic that the artist was able to generate.  In my mind, that magic is the essential element and ultimately the driving force behind a painting, perhaps it is the real beauty of the piece.  It transforms a mere picture into art.