I have always been drawn to nature, particularly animals and landscape. As a kid I had all sorts of unique and uncommon pets, from the every day yellow lab to the borderline illegal poison arrow frog. You name the pet reptile and I've probably owned it. As a painter I gravitated towards landscape paintings early on, almost always in oil. Recently I've shifted my focus to water color wildlife studies. Using a variety of techniques and approaches I seek to put my own twist on each rendering. Some of these techniques create somewhat wild and random results.
I find the splattering,dripping of paint, sprinkling of salt, dripping of glue and the use of free flowing wet on wet style water color allows for a refreshing sense of freedom, looseness and lack of control. There is something very liberating and therapeutic about splattering, dripping and blowing paint upon a painting you have invested in. It's an artistic roll of the dice, a gamble if you will. I always have a general idea or vision for how each painting will appear when finished. However, the beauty of water color is that it tends to take on a life of its own and yields unexpected and often exciting results. Water color also has a very immediate, on-the-go portability that lends itself well to my busy life style. I'm able to pick up and paint whenever I have a free moment. Most of these paintings are comprised of equal parts intricate detail and loose abstraction. The eyes are almost always the area where detail and focus is concentrated while the fringes of the figure and/or the composition fade away to create a vignette. Often I regain structure and/or embellish upon shapes and abstract elements by drawing back into them with very fine point ink pens or very thinly painted lines.
If you wish to have a painting done of your pet or a specific animal etc. contact me via the contact page.