Exactitude is not truth.
                ~Matisse

Primarily a landscape painter, my work is a meditation and celebration of unspoiled countryside as well as the occasional quiet moment found on a city sidewalk. My paintings focus on places that have specific meaning to me personally but I invite the viewer to bring their own meaning to each piece. I seek out places where nature and humanity intersect. At times this intersection may be as subtle as a pair of tire tracks laid out across an open field. Often, it is defined by the juxtaposition of architecture and its natural surroundings.

I try to evoke the sensation of a quiet setting ‘on the cusp’ of sweeping change. I am moved by that brilliant light that spills across a scene when the sun emerges for a transitory moment from behind a cloud. This pure light creates geometric shapes that can be rendered abstractly within the framework of the natural landscape. The landscapes I paint and the objects in them are almost always defined by strong sunlight and bold shadows.

For me, the first task at hand when starting a painting is to excise all superfluous detail. Rather than seeking to replicate common aspects of a landscape, I recognize the 2-dimensionality of a painting’s surface and work towards a ‘flattened out’, reductive aesthetic. This creates abstractions which seem to embody the non-visible energies in nature. Flat, boneless shapes and their relationship to hills and mountains rolling into the horizon are dynamic because of their simplicity. Often these shapes are more real than the foliage and shrubbery that they suggest. 

Paring something down to its essence is my ultimate goal. To understand this process, the viewer might imagine themselves staring into a brightly lit scene full of exquisite detail. Then, when the eyes close, there are only certain images  left etched in the negative space of their lids. These are the details I try to hold onto.