Season of Light (detail), oil on canvas, 58 by 58 inches, ©2011
I paint the outside world--- light, water, weather, and in this new series, trees. I start from the leaves, branches, and trunks of trees, and render them in textured and layered paint. I mediate between the tree image and the physical paint. Just as a dance follows the music and sometimes moves independently, the painting grows from the image and away from it.
The oaks, bays, tan oaks and redwoods of coastal California comprise the archetypal forest of my imagination. I try to paint two things that trees give me-- delight in light and shadow, and the feeling of enclosure and intimacy.
We live our lives largely inside buildings. I hope the paintings will evoke the world outside. I hope we can exist for a while in that space among trees.