Painting is the language I use to explore my intuitive attraction to light, space and color.

After completing my graduate work, I left the expansive horse country of Eastern WA returning to the Northern CA Bay Area where I began the Battles series using the horse as a personal and global subject. I appropriated Rubens and Delacroix artworks for their rhythmic compositions to explore my paint handling. Additionally, I painted natural Landscapes in WA, OR and CA with spatial distant views.

The complexity of the Benicia industrial waterfront challenged me to paint urban landscapes. The Arsenal, Cargo Ships and Industrial Prints series evolved from living in a studio surrounded by transport vehicles and bridges. Light formed angles of shadows across sides of immense ships or between warehouse walkways. 

The Yuba Site series was inspired by the 1850s Yuba Factory in Benicia where sharp light radiated through decayed roofs illuminating detritus left behind by workers. It had housed repair space for paddlewheel steamers, gold dredging machines and howitzer guns, until finally the space became artists’ studios and then was demolished.

In the recent Play-Things series I’m observing still lifes of toys and objects. At times intense light creates shadow-shapes that have their own physical presence, and dialogues occur between figurines or even between the shadows themselves.

In Encaustics I paint with hot wax or with paper collages embedded in wax. Ideas evolve as a collage is composed but can change drastically once the process begins. Surfaces are gouged out, scraped and burnt to develop the work; and sometimes the images are surreal or homages to historical artists.

The unique fluidity of either hot wax, oils or inks guide my exploration from subject to image. By working in Series and observing variations, I discover my personal intentions and clarify formal concerns.