“One of my earliest childhood memories is of leafing through my mother's huge and heavy art books. My favorite pages were those depicting the characters of Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel. My father was a community theater director who also designed his own stage sets and costumes. My mother was a teacher and actress in my father's plays. From them I learned a love of beauty and music, and inherited what artistic ability I possess. After school, there were ballet lessons and often my mother played for us on the old black upright piano. Sometimes, I would dance as she played. The flowers in my paintings sometimes seem to me to be dancers whirling on a stage, full of warmth and rhythm.
"I found that the artists I loved best would influence my style. I was charmed by Diego Velázquez, the tranquility and attention to detail of Johannes Vermeer, and the dramatic chiaroscuro of Leonardo da Vinci. My floral studies and still lifes often come from darkness into a brilliant light. I strive to present the flowers' strength even in their delicacy, and to capture their ephemeral beauty as a lasting memory.
"As a child, I spent summers in Idaho with my family, absorbing the grandeur of the mountains and passing afternoons dreaming and writing poetry. Here was born the love of tranquility, which I try to bring to my landscapes. I want the viewer to be invited into a calmer place and time. I spent two years of college studying in Aix-en-Provence, the home of Impressionist painter Paul Cézanne. Here in the south of France, Vincent van Gogh and Paul Gauguin also painted. The color here was startling. Before experiencing these real life landscapes, I had thought the artists were touched by madness or whimsy, but found it was the Provençal sunlight that brought forth colors of which I had only dreamed. Each of these two academic years was followed by a summer scouring the museums of Europe. The visual feast I experienced influenced profoundly; I was especially impressed by the Flemish still lifes. What had first captured my imagination as reproductions in my mother's art books dazzled me when hanging before my eyes. The full moving impact of the paintings simply could not be captured in a reduced and flattened format.
"I found that the artists I loved best would influence my style. I was charmed by Diego Velázquez, the tranquility and attention to detail of Johannes Vermeer, and the dramatic chiaroscuro of Leonardo da Vinci. My floral studies and still lifes often come from darkness into a brilliant light. I strive to present the flowers' strength even in their delicacy, and to capture their ephemeral beauty as a lasting memory.
"As a child, I spent summers in Idaho with my family, absorbing the grandeur of the mountains and passing afternoons dreaming and writing poetry. Here was born the love of tranquility, which I try to bring to my landscapes. I want the viewer to be invited into a calmer place and time. I spent two years of college studying in Aix-en-Provence, the home of Impressionist painter Paul Cézanne. Here in the south of France, Vincent van Gogh and Paul Gauguin also painted. The color here was startling. Before experiencing these real life landscapes, I had thought the artists were touched by madness or whimsy, but found it was the Provençal sunlight that brought forth colors of which I had only dreamed. Each of these two academic years was followed by a summer scouring the museums of Europe. The visual feast I experienced influenced profoundly; I was especially impressed by the Flemish still lifes. What had first captured my imagination as reproductions in my mother's art books dazzled me when hanging before my eyes. The full moving impact of the paintings simply could not be captured in a reduced and flattened format.
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"Today, I take my inspiration from the Northern California landscape; from the rolling vineyards of the Napa Valley to the fields of wild flowers that grace the gardens of my friends. My style ranges from nearly expressionistic landscapes, to vivid and focused renderings of florals, to almost realist still lifes.
"I am fascinated by the flash and sparkle of light and dense, rich color. I see beauty in the details as well as the vista. In my work, you can see both a romantic influence and a search for tranquility. I ask the viewer to pause and enjoy the beauty of a flower, to dream with me of mists of Mendocino, or to savor the California landscape.” |