Artist Statement

As a Midwest native, I have lived in the West and Southwest for the last 22 years. My inspiration comes from scenes in and around the Southwest, the West Coast, as well as on location all over the world. I have a particular passion for Italian landscapes - a focus for my work over a number of years.

I love painting en plein air and spend most of my creative time out on location. Because I travel extensively I have made my painting set up extremely portable to enable me to take it with me everywhere I go. Landscape painting draws me in, particularly where there are architectural elements involved. I believe that my background in engineering helps me to capture architecture in a way that is both realistic and inviting. I particularly like to challenge myself with perspective in my compositions. People often comment that they feel as if they could walk right into one of my paintings. My goal is to evoke that kind of emotional response in the viewer. I have somewhat of a fascination with doors, windows and passageways and like to capture their sense of mystery and intrigue in my work. In addition, my love of the outdoors helps me to see and capture the vibrancy of native plants in the scenes that I paint. Although my preferred approach is plein air painting, I do a significant amount of work in the studio as well.

I have spent considerable creative energy over the past several years developing my floral series of paintings. As a departure from my landscapes, my floral palette is much more vibrant, energetic and can be quite captivating. The juxtaposition of the clean lines and hard edges of the bloom with the fluid luminosity of the background has the effect of an almost photographic presentation. My florals are exercises in painting light and capturing the glow and radiance that only nature can provide.

I am a self-taught artist and have been pursuing the arts since finishing my Engineering degree. I focused many years on textile painting and began using watercolours 11 years ago. The fluid, spontaneous nature and flexibility of this medium allows me to express my creativity in a very fulfilling way. I work exclusively in watercolor and paint on both paper and canvas - a fairly unique presentation for the medium. In addition to painting from my own inspiration, a substantial portion of my body of work is commissioned by my collectors.

I currently have working studios in both Scottsdale, Arizona and San Francisco, California and participate in exhibitions, fine art shows and festivals in both of these regions as well as Southern California, the Pacific Northwest, Colorado and Texas.