Painting primarily on boards with house oil paint, I employ action painting techniques. By utilizing house oils, there is less interruption between myself and the application of paint—I can achieve random and spontaneous effects and have more direct access to the fluidity of the medium; to “be literally ‘in’ the painting” (to quote Pollock).  No brushes are used in my work, as brushes impede the ability to manipulate paint, and diminish the paint’s ability to dictate form—I work with torn shapes of lightweight cardboard, and at times, actual plant material to apply paint. The dynamic nature of the paint, in addition to utilizing organic materials, links me to the textural nature of real and imagined landscapes with a sense of place, volume and depth. While my work most often starts with abstract intensity, eventually there is a concentrated focus on refinement; the last 10% of any painting—the final refinement—takes the greatest amount of time to complete.

my work focuses on “treescapes” and wild botanical compositions and the never-ending inspiration provided by Maine and the New England landscape—I liken my paintings as orchestrations of visual music, much like jazz which is different from more formalized concepts of music.  Invented as I proceed, each composition comes forward on a moment-by-moment basis, the components are random and abstract, yet consciously orchestrated—the growth of a living forest works in much the same way.