Portfolio of Works
Textural Landscapes for Purchase
I work impressionistically using acrylic paint with a palette knife and a silicone dotter for expressive mark-making.
I have spent most of my life in a rural setting, surrounded by woods, streams and fields on a dead-end road. Being surrounded by nature has definitely given me a heightened sense of paying attention to my surroundings... which only grew in the years I spent creating my landscapes via plein air painting. Though painting impressionistically... being able to have the actual impression of what kind of plant or tree is represented is also very important to me. Not only does that make me feel a little like a visual historian of sorts but though a person might not know the name of a plant... their eyes process those shapes, colors etc. and that impression draws them into the scene. I often hear people talking about feeling as though they could walk right into the painting... and that drawing/immersive-feeling is just what I'm going for.
Watercolor on Yupo Landscapes for Purchase
The initial reason I began painting lush and immersive landscapes was because I was trying to forget my troubles during the Covid lockdowns. During that time, I began to experiment with mediums and techniques that I'd never tried before. I was led to try watercolor on Yupo (a synthetic paper) and since then it's been hard to go back to regular paper because I adore the vibrancy Yupo affords as pigment sets via evaporation upon its surface.
Not only did Covid awaken a desire to explore/escape but also to appreciate. As I was pushed away from painting socially with others via plein air and back into the studio, I began utilizing reference photography from my trips around Ohio with family. Parks, preserves, my rural surroundings… whether 'in the wild' or structured gardens: quiet, hidden, reflective/introspective....lush; these are now things I now look for. I am polarized by scenes that make me forget my troubles and I feel "enveloped", even if just for a moment.
Watercolor Portraiture/Figurative for Purchase
I had been painting landscapes as a way to escape my troubles; and throughout covid, I began to experiment with media, mediums and techniques that I'd never tried before; such as watercolor on Yupo, a synthetic plastic-like paper. I also spent a lot of time with close family (during covid lock-downs) and so my love for genre themes, including portraits, continued to grow and become very personal. This personal nature involves my affections, feelings, and light-hearted approach as my real midwest reality wears upon my sleeve. I consider myself a 'deep thinker', but I'm always looking for humor and hope in life.
Although Yupo is known for it's ease in subtractive painting, I paint in a layered add-on approach... very seldomly 'erasing' what I've laid down. This approach is more painstaking in having to only lay one pass down at a time followed by the time it takes to fully dry in-between passes (because we are talking about evaporation on plastic).. but this method gives me a distinctive look and feel that is uncommon for most purveyors of Yupo. I also find myself using watercolor pencils and ink as well.
