------------------ ARTIST STATEMENT ------------------
I am motivated to create art by the life I live. The people, the animals, and the objects demand exploration and examination.
I love the space between things and how paint can wrap around a form. I love how colour and texture can define and explain a surface.
In the last twenty years I have explored each of the traditional genres of figurative art: landscape, still life, portrait, figure, animal. I did this to expand and extend my visual vocabulary.
My primary medium is acrylic paint on canvas. I prefer it to oil paint primarily for its quick drying properties.
I generally use visual references that I have photographed or use an online resource from a photo-sharing database. I usually jump in, sketching in paint directly on the surface and building in layers.
I believe that artwork requires clear content and meaning or a symbolic underpinning. I also believe that the materials must speak as an equal partner in the artwork. I am stimulated by my experiences and visual references which stir ideas. They can be quite simple or complex.
Over my 50-year art career I have been consistent in maintaining a reference to the world in which we live and the expressive use of materials.