Artist Statement

One of the overlooked benefits of a smart phone camera if you are a painter is the ability to filter, crop and enhance various elements of your photograph in a way that facilitates transforming that picture into a painting.

 A picture can be of anything, but a 'painting' contains a sense of completion, both physical and spiritual. That path, elevating a picture to 'painting' status, is illuminated by the following quote from American artist Mark Rothko

    "Ideas and plans that existed in the mind at the start were simply the doorway through which one left the world in which they occur."

      These photographic images on a camera merely provide a foundation for further exploration with oil paint, and consequently, most finished paintings are the result of repeated adjustment sessions focusing on composition, color, contrast and texture until a cohesive harmony is revealed.

      Even though landscapes are the majority of these paintings, there's a lot to be learned from working with less recognizable or even unknown subject matter so I feel free to mix it up with portraiture and abstract, modern contemporary efforts also. There is no reason I know of to limit yourself to one means of expression.