Painting is the language I use to explore my intuitive attraction to light, space and color.

For 20 years I worked in my studio surrounded by the Benicia industrial waterfront on the Carquinez Strait. That environment challenged me to move from the natural landscape to the urban landscape. My Arsenal, Cargo Ships and Industrial series evolved from living among diverse transport vehicles, bridges, long walkways and slanting rooftops. Subjects seen daily became my imagery, as shapes of light transformed immense ships, shadows filtered across structural planes, and light settled softly on buildings and distant hills.

The Yuba Site series began by observing the ruined architecture of the 1850s Yuba Factory in Benicia before its 2007 demolition. Shafts of light poured through decayed roofs to encompass detritus left behind by people who had repaired paddlewheel steamers, fabricated gold dredging machines and howitzer guns, until finally the space became artists’ studios.

After completing my graduate work, I left the expansive horse country of Eastern WA and returned to the Bay Area in Northern CA where I began my Battle series using the horse as a personal and global subject. I appropriated Rubens and Delacroix artworks for their rhythmic compositions, and explored my process of handling paint alongside my reactions to historical subject matter. Concurrent to that series, I painted the natural Landscape in WA, OR and CA.

Although the subject of my artwork continues to change over time, the search for a connection between light/space/structure remains the same. After painting ambient light permeating space from a distant view, I’m recently working with direct light on small objects, in still lifes of toys. In this series called Play-Things, objects interact in humorous luminance, and at times their shadows have a strong physical presence. I’m looking forward to new possibilities after my most recent move to Mendocino County.

I work primarily with oil paint and monotype printmaking but also use encaustic, pastel, and watercolor. Each material’s unique fluidity guides my exploratory process from subject to image; and painting in Series helps me to discover my intentions alongside formal concerns, looking in-depth at the many variations.