The ideas for my paintings originate from the natural world. I love landscapes of all kinds including mountains, prairies, sea coasts as well as trees, rivers and skies. However, instead of painting what my eyes see, I use both my intuition and imagination to express what I feel about the subject. The painting and I have an ongoing conversation about what we want to say so the process is both intuitive and rational.

Stated another way, I start the creative journey of a painting with a noun (the subject) as a reality but then I deliberately remove visual facts and add my personal ideas and feelings about the subject. Through this process my paintings become more like the adjectives and adverbs of what I think and feel about the subject. Sometimes I use personal symbols or marks. My current series of paintings includes whimsical and/or imaginary elements that reflect my wonder at the beauty and mystery of nature.

I currently use acrylic paint, charcoal, watercolor crayon, watercolor pastel and any other water media that suit my intentions for the painting. I paint on papers of various kinds including rice paper as well as canvas. I use the design elements of color and mostly organic shapes to create a composition.

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Web site updated 3-29-11