Preface Artist's Statement
	Most of my paintings are done from my own experience or from photographs that I take. Only a small number of paintings fall outside of this experiential realm and I will have some things to say about them later. Overall one can label me a Realist. Impressionism, which is a subset of Realism or Naturalism, was my first love, so light, color and atmosphere are important to me.

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	Cannon Beach 2005 Oil on Canvas 18 x 36"   The way I think about Impressionism in relationship to the broader category of Realism, is that the emphasis is on light captured by form rather than the description of form revealed by light. Generally, I care more about the light, but not always. Sometimes the forms are more important. It all depends and each situation is unique. *

Painting from experience led me to what I call first-person-perspectives (FPP). These images depict my broadest field of vision including my own body beneath my eyes. Translating the spherical visual field to a two-dimensional canvas meant creating some distortion as in a "fish-eye" lens image. To make the spatial relationships in the paintings more readable it was necessary to abandon the looser, "painterly" style of Impressionism. The result was a trompe l'oeil effect.   The Dance Studio 1987,'95, '97, '03 Oil on Canvas 76" diameter   While I continued to explore Impressionism I was obsessed with this FPP idea in order to express a sense of wonder that I sometimes feel about being in my body surrounded with some environment. It also advocates the primacy of experience as opposed to any sort of ideology. The fact that the image of the "Dance Studio" appears to be from the eyes of one of the dancers would seem to move it into the realm of fantasy. I was hoping to show that my interest in immediate experience is not necessarily about my experience ("The Dance Studio" was done in succession to a self-portrait).   *

 

	The aspect of Naturalism in landscape painting that interests me is not the pursuit of precise visual detail. It is the broader consideration of all that is in our experience including the prosaic, everyday environment with its artificiality in contrast to the scenes of pure nature. So I generally divide my landscapes into two groups: scenic and urban.
back to Home Page	Street Construction 2005 Oil on Canvas 16 x 20" *

 

	Many of my paintings are life-studies done from nude models. In spite of widespread prudery and cultural taboos, there exists a long and thriving artistic tradition of drawing from the model. The nudity should not necessarily refer to our sexual nature and even as it may, sexuality is only natural, not immoral in my view. The beauty and interest of the nude inspires me, pure and simple.
back to Home Page	Three Figures 2004 Oil on Canvas 8 x 10" *

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