NATURAL PIGMENT PAINTINGS ON CANVAS

The earth is my muse.

A journey through the landscape

on foot and in painting

Beginning without preconceived ideas, I have an improvisational approach to painting,

to convey the energy, beauty, and vulnerability found in the natural world.

I want to capture those feelings we have when in a field, in the mountains or by the ocean.

Using natural mineral, earth, and botanical pigments with either oil or water on canvas,

I work loosely with the fluidity of watercolor, using large brushes, rags, splatter, scrapers,

squeegees and the force of gravity. I spend much of my time in the studio watching paint dry,
directing the stain of color on the canvas. The process is similar to a conversation, guiding the

paint as it guides me; enjoying the unpredictable ways natural pigments interact, layer upon layer.

Gradually forms emerge, color and gesture spread across canvas.

Working on a large scale offers the sense of entering a world rather than looking at one.

I immerse myself in the experience, and through years of practice have developed

my own visual language. Working with certain colors over an extended period brings

subtle and incremental changes.

The process has to surprise me, nourish my imagination, and break through my own confines.
A kind of controlled chaos leads me from one painting to the next.

For me, a painting is complete when it feels alive,

creating a space into which the eye can wander.

EARTH ARIA SERIES (2019)  (#1 & #2)



AUTUMN MESA (2019)