Artist Statement
It was not my original intention to produce a body of work that is similar or establish my work with an ongoing theme. However, much to my own surprise, a pattern emerged: Common visions and simple reality. A glassy lake, rocky grottos, breaking waves, dense forest, many of Mother Nature's beasts and critters, plump fruit on a tree or table, even a kitten cuddled or full of mischief. The peace and order of life draws me so strongly that I can, through my art, manage to ignore the busy and chaotic side of our world.
Early on, while still experimenting with different materials, my sister in California sent me an old cigar box full of our grandmother's pastels. Long forgotten they were covered in their own dust but, after cleaning them up, I couldn't wait to see how they performed. While looking for something other than paper to use, I found some scraps of suede board matting, applied a few strokes...and my passion was born!
It's pleasing to work with soft pastels on suede board because there's such little resistance and, although that smooth glide over the surface is very appealing to me, it is also fascinating to see the pastels flow onto different textures. Working with those same pastels on a sanded surface forces me to paint a little looser and the gritty surface provides more texture to the scene. While it was exciting to discover the wonders of pastel, I couldn't seem to achieve the detail that I crave, so I turned to colored pencil and found an additional reward in that medium. Colored pencil affords me the opportunity to "fuss" with the details in plants and flowers without getting myself into trouble by overworking things.
I paint primarily from photo reference taken either from our own travels or friends and family, often creating a finished work from a combination of references. My subject matter is generally a message of peacefulness and logic. Avoiding nostalgia, I ask the viewer to step in and feel a new experience or the remembrance of one past. How would it feel to be there, or be there again?