I am passionate about protecting animals and nature and the importance of our connection to the natural world. I work through these paintings to make sense of the roar of the world and the remote silence of nature. The landscape genre is for me a conveyance for the many layers of reality. Sometimes the landscape is simply a homage to the extraordinary beauties of nature . Sometimes it is a documentation of nature’s struggle to survive the onslaught of civilization. Sometimes it can refer to the indifferent circle of seasons - a witness to our emotional lives and our private triumphs and losses. While the human figure is mostly absent in the spaces, the human impact is always present.
The layers of reality are also apparent in my approach to painting. I experiment with different paints, grounds, varnishes and techniques to create painterly and lush surfaces. This creates a tension between representational space and abstraction. Any preconceived ideas of composition that start a painting are often changed many times. I work through the paint, the color mixing, and the tactile materials until sometimes it begins to connect me to our interconnected rhythms and consciousness .
In this troubled and cynical time, these works are hopeful though, or try to be. We can be courageous, we can take restorative action and we can reconnect with our natural world and its spiritual sustenance.
