Oils

I grew up with a love of painting and drawing fostered by my mother, a watercolor artist. After graduating from NorthernArizonaUniversity with a degree in art, I joined the Peace Corps and served for three years as a graphic artist in Botswana, Africa. The next twenty years were spent pursuing an accounting career. Just when business opportunities seemed the most promising, I returned to art and made the choice to start over and become a serious artist.

Studying at the Art Students League in Denver and traveling with various artists I found painting to be a consuming passion, one that demanded the learning of a whole new language, a visual language. I came to admire and love the paintings of great artists and to be able to see the language they were using. Just as each person has their own signature, each artist must develop their own visual words and phrases. It is from this visual language that my paintings are built.

The act of creating artwork is an addiction. While I am painting, I seem to be an observer as the paint goes onto the canvas. It’s only when finishing a painting that I become aware of a product that will be put into a frame. I think of my paintings as if they are windows into my own world, one taken from nature and then altered to include my favorite places, colors, and shapes.

I find inspiration in nature and in the way that people have inhabited it. I love old buildings, crooked roads and glimpses of water. Valleys and mountains form landscapes to hold our attention. Endless desert vistas make us feel free. When someone responds to one of my paintings it means that I have captured some essence of reality that crosses over into their world. Perhaps it triggers a distant memory or reminds them of a place they would like to stay, if only life would allow. When someone finds comfort in one of the places I have created I know I have succeeded.