Statement

To create this landscape series, I visit and paint on location in the Hudson Valley, New York. Painting on location enables me to use all of my senses. I work quickly and intuitively. The process of my work involves sketching on location in a value study and creating small color studies in pastel or watercolor. Paintings are completed in oil, in the studio or on location. I try to feel the land and the ways in which I am connected to it. Time of day, atmosphere, temperature, light, movement, season…all inform my painting. This allows sensory exploration into a combination of representation and painterly abstraction. I know a piece is finished when it feels like a poem.

ARTIST STATEMENT- Music Sheet Nudes

When creating this Umber Nude series I work directly from life at a group drawing session in Warwick, NY, where we draw from a live model in a barn studio. I am most attracted to the way the light falls on the model. The backlit dark shapes, how they connect and how the light softly turns on the forms seduces me. I work quickly, and intuitively, the longest pose being twenty minutes. There are many that don’t work out. What attracted me to painting on the vintage music sheet paper was its ethereal quality. I like the torn edges and it’s oxidizing gives it a tonality that works well with burnt umber watercolors. I also sometimes play with choosing the lyrics, matching them up to the pose.

Paintings are gouache, watercolor or ink on vintage music sheet paper.