My paintings are my way of relating a visual impression of the world. This recent work is my impression of a view I have seen many times from my deck in Palm Springs. In my artwork I like to simplify the shapes and colors of a figure or image to create this interpretation of what I see. I choose shapes and colors that I hope will create a visual equilibrium in my composition.

I start with my view:

The artwork begins with a sketch of the scene. The sketch is an interpretation of what I see. My first addition of color comes with colored pencils. Then comes an examination of the shapes or visual fields and how they reflect the color and light. Once that is done I decide what colors would to make the new shapes more interesting. Decisions are made based on aesthetics, but must faithfully reflect my impression of the original scene. All this is an attempt to communicate what it felt like to see the scene, not an attempt to depict the scene as it actually physically appeared.

Here are my first two sketches:

Once this is done I experiment in paint on paper. The quality of the colors and textures changes at this stage. The entire image is affected by this change in media. I want to see if my vision is still intact at this stage and I will decide whether or not to paint the image on canvas.

Here are my first two paintings:

My final step is to paint the image on canvas. First and foremost my work is an examination of what has changed in my personal view of the world over the years and what I still appreciate seeing. I want to observe what has remained beautiful to me and how my current aesthetics can make it appear more gracious and closer reflect to my experience of seeing it.