Biography
My work is traditionally executed in a realistic style to conservation standards, but it has a contemporary feel due to my arrangement of form, shape, light patterns and point of view. Although I am a representational painter I do not aim for the precise reality of photo-realism, but a reflection of reality that is like a pleasant memory, a poetic interpretation of everyday. I want my paintings to look like paintings, not photographs.
My aim is to transform what can be ordinary subject matter into objects of beauty by rendering the light on them. In the last few years light patterns have taken on a dominant importance in the structure and inspiration for my work. My paintings are still and serene, often “close-up”, with simple design structure. I hope you feel like you want to “enter into” them. I am interested in the effects of light, but in a “glare” aesthetic, light defines form rather than dissolves it as with the impressionists. Shapes and values are the dominant element of my work; I balance color and use hard and soft edges with these in mind. The relationship of the objects to the overall compositional space is also of primary importance for me.
I have a wide variety of paint colors, but to create tonal unity I use a limited palette for each painting. I attempt to retain freshness by finishing as much as I can as I go, attempting to limit the amount of reworking necessary. Some glazing adds selective detail, enriches color, and softens edges. I work only under natural light and ”check” my value correctness by half-light.