I have painted and drawn my entire life; it's an addiction, really. And I’ve always loved the sensations associated with artist’s materials: the smell of oil paint and turpentine, the feel of a brush or pencil balanced in my hand, the look of a perfectly white surface waiting to receive my dream, the fantastic names of pigments, burnt sienna, raw umber, cerulean blue, and alizarin crimson. Each color has its own distinct personality.

For me the process of painting must first begin with dreaming and imagining possibilities. I have always felt that the best aspects of representational art emerge and gain power when images are abstracted through an interior vision where one’s imagination can take over and drive the creative process. Realism is not about cramming information into a painting. It is about getting down to the essence of what is important, getting down to how I feel about the subject matter. Realism is about simplification.

Although I have earned a degree from a fine arts program, my experience with formal art education had little influence on my approach to painting or my choice of subject matter. During my developing years as an artist realism was not seriously discussed. Art of the new was everywhere. Realism was dead, an anachronism, or at worst an amusing artifact of history. But I never wanted to abandon entirely the texture, shape and color of objects, or the way light describes form with edges and shadows. So out of necessity I directed my own art education and training and have pursued my own vision ever since.

Presently I am concerned with still life painting, usually common objects such as cut flowers set simply against a background of color. To me this provides the perfect laboratory for experimentation. Within this small world I can explore the infinite universe of light and the way color hangs in the air. Just the idea of this excites me. Every night I go to my bed thinking about painting. It has always been that way.