Artist Statement

I came to art recently in my life. My education is through small, informal classes and just, finally, stopping to really look at what is around me. What I have learned from studying the work of other artists – from Old Masters to the current artists around me – is that there is no success without hard work, learning, listening, growing from criticism, erasing and redoing, sketching, painting and repainting. The few pieces that express what I see and feel about the subject comes from several attempts that didn’t quite work. There is no growing without stretching my skills, trying new techniques and learning from the ones that don’t work.
Someday, I will learn to draw that straight line.
For my current work, I am doing portraits, tight head shots gleaned from photographs taken on trips; small landscapes also from trips; abstracts that reflect for me the flow of life from the Earth, and studies of whimsy, just because. I don’t really have a technique, but I do know that when the act of painting works, I reach a place of expression and the person or place comes to life for me and hopefully, for the viewer.