Artist Statement

I am intrigued by motion and stillness alike and paint horses running and birds flying, as well as in repose. I paint figures too, usually from live models. Often the paintings I make, for example of the abstracted horses, are allegorical and tell a story. I like to let the viewers interpret each story for themselves.

Having grown up on a farm in Tennessee, I have always been inspired by wildlife and the lessons flora and fauna can teach us. After years of urban living in New York, Europe and Los Angeles, I am back in Tennessee where I can observe and explore firsthand the landscapes, animals and birds that inform my work.

I paint on canvas and panel in both acrylics and oils. I layer my work and build up a great deal of texture. My interest in drawing also plays into my paintings. As I like to show the “artist’s hand,” I often work backwards, drawing on top of a finished painting and exposing the line work that provided the painting’s original armature.

I take an emotive, action-based approach to the application of paint, working as much with splashes and drips of color as with carefully rendered line. I then go back in and scrape, scratch through or sand away several layers to reveal an original, even unanticipated thought or feeling beneath. I am interested in the way that realism and abstraction combined creates exciting visual movement across the surface of the canvas.