Artistic Statement:

“I am an Impressionist in the sense that I am too impatient and emotional for carefully planned formula renditions. I respond intuitively and I am interested in strong essentials, which for me are perspective, color, spontaneity, passion, power and poetry..."

The essence of Impressionism is to make a fast statement, to suggest a lot of detail without painting a lot of detail. The important thing is the tactile quality and the color.

Light is the spark that makes it (a work) come to life. In my painting, I lay the light on last, almost as if it is the sun beating down… forcefully, directly, full brush.

Art is more than painting, it is emotion…inspiration. I take the essence of the subject in note form and pencil draft…then later recall the memory, evoking spontaneous brushwork. When I am totally engrossed in what I am doing, as if nothing else exists… painting can be a spiritual experience. The more I enjoy myself, the better the work.

Sometimes it’s almost like an out of body experience. Hours will go by and I don’t know where they have gone. The floodgates open and my painting is finished.

Drawing is I think, the basic element in fine art. I mean drawing in the true sense, in the old academic sense. To be able to do a portrait, a figure, a nude, and have it right the first time. If you can draw spontaneously, without the use of a rubber eraser just to do it and get it done and it’s finished, that’s what I am talking about. Without touching it or retouching it. That is I think, the measure of the artist.

Painting is an extension beyond that, but without the ability to draw it will lack spontaneity and vitality required in any representative or impressionistic painting. When I choose a scene, a landscape for instance, I sketch quickly perhaps several sketches on site, and make color notes. Then, when I am back in the studio, I simple sketch with paint right on the canvass.

Sometimes a very quick painting turns out to be a masterpiece. I like spontaneous brushwork, the direct approach. A nice juice painting. Little fiddle brushwork bothers me.