The Maine landscape has had a major influence on my work as it is here in Maine that I began to paint my surroundings, to develop my language that enables me to interpret and communicate on paper and canvas what I see and feel as I daily look about me.
I work directly in the landscape and also in my studio. Though I use the landscape as my source I attempt to transcend the literal interpretation and engage the viewer in seeing something they may see daily in a different way.
My landscapes are stages upon which I interpret form, color and movement. I paint because it provides me great pleasure and it connects me with the natural world. It allows me to make sense of my environment through the coherent and wordless language of painting. I attempt to portray not just what I see but how I see it- transforming the landscape into my own unique interpretation.
The landscape is ever changing—light shifts, water flows, clouds move—and I find myself viewing the same scenes in seemingly infinite ways, depending on the season, time of day, and my own mood at the time of the painting. Intuitively I am responding to nature as it presents fascinating combinations of land, sky, water and light. Whether I am looking out my studio window, driving into town, walking or traveling I am envisioning paintings, and this is where I get my “material” from which I create my works. It is this sudden revelation in a familiar place, that moment of clarity when what has been seen often is seen as if for the very first time, that I seek. It is only after I am thoroughly engaged with a landscape that I am able to paint.
Artistic influences are many- among them are Canadian artists Tom Thompson and the Group of Seven, Emily Carr, Marsden Hartley, Charles Burchfield and two of my very early painting teachers- Gustav Trois and Richard C. Ziemann.