My current series of watercolor paintings owes much to the still life genre, although these pieces are not always created using traditional processes. I sometimes paint from direct observation, and sometimes compose using a variety of other methods, including digital collage and more intuitive processes. These paintings are inspired by personal experiences, daily life and important events—especially those that relate to the development of my young son. Several of these compositions include objects and images that belong to him, or that reference events or milestones in our lives.
In another series of paintings, all acrylic and oil on canvas, landscapes are the basis for my imagery. These paintings are much more gestural and abstract in terms of execution when compared with the watercolor still-lifes. In this series, I selectively modify qualities of the landscape and environment from my reference images in order to create a strong sense of movement and interesting palette. Light, temperature and elements of pattern are qualities I focus on, more so than on specific references to place. In some ways, although the subject matter and techniques are quite different, both series of paintings incorporate aspects of abstraction…… Because I am very interested in both the visual and content-related similarities between these two series, I regularly switch back and forth between the landscapes and still-lifes in order to establish clear parallels between individual paintings.