My painting is an offering of gratitude for the precious opportunity to be present on this wonderful life-sustaining planet. The natural world conveys immensity, power, impermanence, and re-connection with our true spiritual nature, which is primordial wakefulness, clarity, and spaciousness.

The fine art of being present to this nature is the guiding principle in my art. I hope these paintings convey peace, stillness, and equanimity.

I paint on location and in the studio. The quality of light influences everything. Composition provides the structure of the image. Value, temperature, edges, and color relationships are important elements. Each painting is a leap into the unknown, a fresh start. The interdependent nature of the particulars of a scene is what expresses its unique qualities and "essence". An abstract shape configuration, an energy, or tonality suggests an "idea" which I hold in my minds eye, allowing flexibility for the painting to take on a life of its own. The process unfolds organically like a dance; leading, following, listening for what is needed, and getting out of the way.

Pastel

Pastel is pure dry pigment with enough binder to hold into sticks that range from hard to very soft. It is the same pigment used to make fine art paints (oil and watercolor), and is the most permanent of all media. I love pastel for the amazing and unique qualities of luminosity that can be achieved by applying multiple layers of pigment (consisting of very fine crystals) onto lightly sanded paper, which gives it the ability to blend optically in the viewer's eye in beautiful and surprising ways. It allows me to express my vision in a primal and direct manner like the ancient cave painters of Lascaux, transmitting the human spirit through touch using charcoal and pure pigments from the earth in an unbroken lineage from their time to ours.

Biography

1970 Began formal art studies at Illinois State University
1972 Figure study with Seymour Rusofsky at Chicago City College
1975 Bachelors of Science in Fine Art Illinois State University
Painting, intaglio & color viscosity printmaking, figure drawing.
1985 Returned to art making- landscape drawing.
1999 Returned to figure drawing and landscape painting with pastels.
2000-2002 Figure study in Sonoma County with Don Leivas.
2000-2004 Pleine-aire landscape study in Sonoma County with Richard McDaniel, Allen Flatman, Bob Rohm, and Clark Mitchell.