Artist Statement
What I Paint
I have spent most of my life in Colorado and Arizona and often travel between the two. Raised at the base of the Rocky Mountains, I had endless opportunities for hiking, backpacking, and skiing. I began drawing, painting, and photographing the wildly beautiful places I stumbled upon in the hopes that I would remember them and could share them with others. Moving to Arizona as a young man, I was introduced to yet another beautiful land. The Sonoran and Mojave Deserts might be extreme environments, but they offer a different, yet equally as impressive beauty.
While many of my paintings feature the vast wilderness that dominates Colorado and Arizona, I have always found equal fascination with urban landscapes. Pursuing a career in urban design was natural and allowed me to continue using art as a method of understanding the places I found myself.
In my art, I strive to capture the qualities, activities, and characteristics of places both natural and human built. I focus on capturing the features that inform the distinguishing identity of a place. Ideally, my art will invoke a connection where a viewer can share what I felt and experienced about a place.
My Approach
I tend to approach a new piece of art in a similar way. Aside from getting into the right headspace and having a solid foundation in techniques and methods, I first start with finding my inspiration. What, how, and who to paint for. I am always looking–exploring and recording things I see. I use a camera, sometimes my phone, and a sketchbook. I get out into the field, hike the deserts and the mountains, and search for the next idea, the next place, the next painting.
Most of my work is produced in the studio based on, or referencing photographs. Other work, mostly on smaller canvases and boards, is plein-air (beginning in the field with sketches and is later finished in the studio while I reference notes and other images). Photographs are an important tool for me, but I find there is no substitute for seeing a subject and spending time in a place, especially when using an unconventional point of view.
After finding the subject of my next work, I find that I rely on my intuition on how to compose the piece–the artist’s eye, if you will. Intuition is great for starting out and critiquing my work. It’s about the composition, the color pallet, the arrangement of forms, and other elements of the painting. My intuition is what tells me what and how to paint for the effect I desire.
When intuition fails–and it does–and I simply don’t have the experience, I break out the more analytical problem solving skills. This might mean researching techniques, experimentation, or looking to see what other artists have done, and then approaching my painting anew. Sometimes I take the painting in an entirely new direction while sometimes I decide to set the painting aside until something changes.
Mediums, Materials, and Making Art
My current preferred medium is acrylic paints and ink, even though I have encountered some challenges with the paint being dried too quickly by the environment. I have managed to gain proficiency in numerous mediums, no matter the challenges, including watercolor paint and dyes, soft pastel, Nu-pastel, charcoal, colored pencil, and other mixed media. I have experimented working on suitable/appropriate archival papers, illustration board, Bristol board, sanded and texture toned papers, Masonite panels, white and red birch wood panels, and stretched canvas and linen.
My habit is to immerse myself in a particular medium for the time it takes to gain proficiency and skill to confidently render my ideas. No matter the piece, I choose the best suited, and highest quality, materials and mediums I can afford to ensure my work’s value is not compromised.
Style
I admire the impressionist painters and much of my work reflects theirs. Still, I am not a purist, and there are distinct content, compositional, and stylistic differences in my paintings compared to them. These differences are derived from my own preferences and beliefs, my personal geography, and a unique point of view and skills honed through years of work in urban design, graphic design, and illustration.
Though the work of a fine artist is very different, there are some approaches and techniques that I have found in my design and illustration work that are highly beneficial. Rendering for publication and non-archival mediums causes my color pallets to be bright, especially while using acrylic mediums. This effect is furthered by back-painting in contrasting colors on select pieces.
I work to bring depth to my paintings with the use of shade and shadow in methods that acknowledge the inherent temperature difference of each. I strive for accuracy in depicting light, atmosphere, and depth of field, and I’m confident in working with, adjusting, and creating new perspectives for effect. With these skills, I can convey the immensity and grandeur of the places I focus on.
The scale of my subjects–the broad vistas, panoramic views, and massive land forms–draws me to larger canvases and leads to a higher level of abstraction in some pieces. My goal isn’t to create a photograph of the place, but to capture the feeling and character of a place. These artistic habits enhance my work and are second nature to me.