Artist Statement
My paintings are a mirror of my life. I paint what I feel, have and think at the time that I am experiencing it. My interest and tendency is to view and represent things as they really are.
In the painting My Special Place I wanted to convey to and share with the viewer the feelings that I experience when escaping to my special place.
I consider my life real but simple. I gravitate toward motifs that are contemporary with the way that I live and feel. I want to sooth and caress the viewers, not shock them. I try to accomplish this by first creating a motif compatible with what I desire to transmit and share with the viewers. I find this to be the most difficult and time consuming part of the painting process. Sometimes a little unreasonable expenses to create the exact mood that I want in my motifs are needed. I have watched an area, that I wanted to create a motif in, all day to see when the sun would create the light and shadows that I wanted, I gravitate toward natural light and colors, I am careful to have a light source but usually create the motif so that reflective light comes from within the painting creating luminosity when surrounded by darker value.
The two water mediums that I paint in are transparent watercolor and acrylic. However, I do not combine the two mediums in the same paintings. I do not use white nor manufactured blacks in my transparent watercolor paintings. The white of the paper is preserved by masking in various ways.
My palette is usually limited to three or four colors in order to create harmony throughout the paintings. Soft natural colors are created by using various glazing, stippling and scrubbing techniques resulting in subtle value changes coupled with soft and vanishing edges. I try to leave just enough hard edges to create interest.
Upon completing a painting, I feel like a little part of me has been released into the painting.