Artist Statement
As
As a realist painter I have visited all genres; the figure, landscape, portraiture, still life. My work has, from time to time, been dominated by each of these. The changes are motivated by the creative impulse, a restlessness that requires that I challenge myself as a painter and artist. I love the process of striving to realize, as fully as possible, the extraordinarily vivid and tactile presence of things; and those qualities as they exist in the paint and painting. Ten years ago I committed myself to working with still life. This change was precipitated in many ways by a realization that beauty by itself is a valid aesthetic, a valid concern for a painting. I compose a painting purely formally; that is, I choose objects with consideration of color, texture and composition. In earlier works I strove for a sense that the still life had been found or come upon. I have discarded this idea, realizing that arrangements can be purely formal even to the degree of appearing artificial. I am concerned with polychromatic rather than tonal solutions. Light and shadow are tantamount to the forms in importance. In the case of the monochromatic paintings, my idea has been to explore the spectrum of each color in all its diversity (what is red?) and to make a painting that had a sense of balance, harmony and restraint. Working in such a traditional idiom the challenge is to make it contemporary as well.
Recently I have begun to work in pastel as a way of keeping my work fresh, to illicit a new set of responses. I am also making new forays into the figure and human landscape. This is being precipitated by the realization that, as an artist, my work has been in many ways determined by the market. I have been working as a professional painter doing portraits and commission work. I have found the market to be a useful collaborator, helping me to edit out what can be insular and idiosyncratic. I am using the current economic climate as an opportunity to return to work that reflects the immediacy, diversity, and specificity of my life.
What I strive for in the paintings is a sense of intimacy, virtuosity, complexity, balance and beauty.