 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
click to view fullsize image back to gallery |
“The basis of happiness is the possibility to be together with nature, to see it and talk it.”
- Leo Tolstoy
For me, painting expresses human emotion better than other medium. I am fascinated with the emotional narration in landscape painting. It is this quality that I admire in the lyrical work of the 19th century Russian landscape painters Isaac Leviton and Alex Savrasov. The pieces in this exhibit reflect my visual interpretation of the momentary emotional narrative each landscape image evoked. These emotions are preserved in the paintings and allow that fleeting moment to be encountered again and again.
In my work, look deep into the layers of paint forming the images. The tapestry of my thoughts and impressions are woven together in the softly abstracted forms that gently allow symbols of realism to emerge. I have used transparent glazes, scumbling and impasto to achieve this effect. As this body of work developed, I became increasingly motivated by color. I find the narrative quality of color subtle, exciting, challenging and profound. This series of paintings was inspired by intimate coastal landscape vignettes in Cushing, Maine and the Outer Banks, North Carolina. As the series progressed, the paintings became larger and more abstract. The cumulative images are as much about my internal philosophical contemplations regarding each landscape as the emotional narration of external vistas of salt marshes, tidal rivers and waterways.
Each painting is a struggle and a journey for me. The destination is the result of a deliberate yet intuitive process to create a narrative landscape that is less substantial; less realistic and simultaneously more emotionally provocative…to create places we all yearn to journey. These paintings have become symbolic postcard images of the places I love and an invitation to join in the emotional narration I wish to share.
September, 2007