Statement
A skillful handmade image is reassuring and empathic, whether a Paleolithic equestrian cave painting or a John Singer Sargent watercolor. Such images validate nature's realities, reinforcing our capacity to behold and understand. The art I make from life is a record of a passage of time, a collection of observations communicating my attention. I paint the environment around me, grand or quotidian, because I enjoy when time is valued.
Every plein air piece made from life is a performance in place under pressure of time and skill. My art is more than a record of “what it looked like” - it is a rigorous manifestation of my presence in the field. I hope my art inspires a fascination for our immediate environment, for our own experience.
Often I am working at my limits of conscious perception and skill. Plein air painting is uncomfortable - under time pressure, at a large scale, in unforgiving media. The sense of accomplishment improving my process is not conceptual, it is visceral.
StateWA
