I believe everyone is an artist in some way, whether it is the presentation of a fine meal or the construction of a beautiful home, the wording of a contract or the way a mother raises a child. Each of us has the ability to make art. Mine just happens to be in paint.
After spending nearly two years aboard a sailboat and cruising the West Coast, I really came to appreciate the quality of light and how different latitudes could affect the way I would see a subject. My favorite experience evolves around capturing warm reflected light on bougainvillea-draped buildings in Mexico. That same investigation of how light plays off of an item is what galvanizes me into painting a subject. It doesn’t matter if it is a ferryboat or a bouquet of flowers.
When teaching, I try to get my students to ‘SEE’ the different ways that the color gray is present in our images. Everything shy of a pure color pigment is a mixture of primary colors that give us a whole world of beautiful grays. My grays have a whole lot of purple to them. The interaction of warm light and cool shadows is what excites me about painting.
I am a third generation artist and am a winner of the coveted Skagit Valley Tulip, Edmonds Arts and the Anacortes Arts Festival posters. I have designed Washington State’s new Heritage Birth Certificate and have worked with Eddie Bauer on a Catalog cover. My work can be found in both private and corporate collections locally and internationally, including France, Turkey, Japan and Netherlands.
I teach 6 workshops a year, some near my hometown of Anacortes, Washington, gateway to the San Juan Islands and some in Alaska and Mexico. I divide my time between that, painting for the local art festival circuit, gardening for sport and kayaking.
