Ever since I was a child I have always loved being outside. Painting the landscape allows me to go outside, relax, focus, and simplify. When I am in the landscape that is all there is; it is time to myself where my mind is clear. I love sitting amidst the marshes with all the changing colors depending on the kind of day, or time of year, the sound of the wind rustling through the grasses, and the smell of the ocean.
I often focus on a tiny piece of the landscape and exaggerate it, making it seem really huge. I like trying to capture the quiet, peaceful, openness of the landscape. In these paintings I am not only observing and painting what I see, I am also taking what I see and interpreting it in my own way by changing some colors and abstracting some forms. The resulting paintings don’t always look exactly like the landscape that is surrounding me, but that landscape is the spark, the resource and inspiration for what comes out on the paper or canvas. My paintings are the essence of my feelings at that time, a wordless diary of my life. These paintings are a combination of the aspects of abstract painting that I love and the feeling of atmosphere and place I get from the landscape.
My goal in my paintings is to take my experiences in the landscape and create my impression of it. I want to take the smells, sounds, movements, and colors and through areas of color, mark making, and giving the paint freedom to do what it wants, bring my paintings to life so they can live, breathe, and take the viewer to another place. These paintings are everything I feel, see, and do; everything I can’t find words to express.
