Having been a commercial artist in Los Angeles for many years before turning to fine art painting in 1996, I know how to work with clients, present strong designs and successfully complete art in a timely manner and under budget. I enjoy working in different mediums and on different substrates like metal and wood, oil and acrylic. I am a certified GOLDEN educator and a Gamblin Oil instructor which makes commissioned challenges easier for me because of my in depth knowledge of materials. I create large scale commissioned paintings and public art installations along with smaller residential works too.
Having grown up on a farm in East Tennessee, I have always been inspired by wildlife and the lessons nature teaches us. After years of urban living in New York, Florence, Italy, London and Los Angeles, I am back in the countryside of Nashville, Tennessee which inspires my current work.
For my personal, fine-art painting, I let the painting inform me as opposed to the other way around. I have an idea of what I want to paint, but I allow the process--the twists and turns as I paint to become an integral aspect of my journey as a painter.
The peeling walls in Tuscany inspired me years ago to paint using layers of texture which I like to add and remove until the story I’m trying to tell gets told. Taking an emotive, action-based approach to the application of paint, I work as much with splashes and drips of color as with carefully rendered lines. It also interests me to combine both realism and abstraction in my work, which I believe creates exciting paths for the viewer to explore visually.
As an environmentalist, I am deeply concerned about the loss of our open lands in this country and throughout the world. I am currently painting about “encroachment” and exploring my concern about overdevelopment through my art.
My work is collected both nationally and internationally.