Over the past twenty years, I have focused on three different genres in my paintings: Girls, Landscapes and Couples. Though the subjects differ, each image originates with an attempt to capture a feeling or mood, rather than a particular person, place or event. The inspiration is psychological, not representational.
It is for this reason that my figures do not have faces and my landscapes do not depict exact locations. I feel that there is more resonance when my paintings are about a state of being rather than a specific individual or place.
To achieve this, I frequently begin each work by drawing with charcoal, then add paint layer by layer until I get the feeling I am after. This technique is both technical and symbolic. Technically it enables me to keep searching for the right mood. Symbolically I find the process most authentically replicates what many moments are made of, layers of emotion and meaning that all create a dynamic organic experience.
My goal is to capture in paint the intensity and richness of human experience, the complexities of emotion that can exist in one minute or act.