Artist Statement

Being an artist is sometimes challenging, completely consuming and enormously fun. I am a native Californian and have been a resident of the magnificent central coast for the last 30 years. With the beauty that surrounds me my inspriations are numerous. The delicate strength and fragility I see in nature casts a spell over me.  It constantly nurtures and feeds my artistic endeavors. Walking through a botanical garden, smelling the sweet fragrance of blooming jasmine, leaning in for an intimate view of soft pink hydrangea petals or brushing my hand over a mound of Spanish moss, inspires me to paint. My challenge as an artist is to capture the shapes, textures and complexities of color I see close up in nature.

I often paint my floral subjects as icons in various stages of life from young buds to fallen leaves and petals. A hollistic view of the cycles of life is a common thread that runs through much of my work. I work in oil on wood panel. This allows me a glass like surface for glazing many layers of paint while creating subtle transistions between form, color and texture. It can transform an ordinary object into the unexpected and extraordinary. My work is a traditional style of realism developed by Rembrandt and the Dutch still life painters who made the floral subject a classic motif in painting. A close up view of my subjects allows a contemporary approach to a timeless tradition.