2023 Watercolors
I’ve been making watercolors since I first traveled to Siberia as a student in 1994. That trip changed my life and sent me home with my first serious body of work. I’m drawn to the fragility and spontaneity of the medium. Time is crushed into the present and if I don’t follow suite the painting can be lost spectacularly quick. I prefer to work outside to feed off the landscape without trying to be overly representational. I let the atmosphere permeate the work while I try to stay out of the way. Whether traveling abroad or working in the mountains of Appalachia where I live, painting outside is the only time I will sit still and deeply observe nature. By picking up a brush and trying to make sense of my environment my senses are instantly heightened. One of my favorite aspects of working outside is that there is zero time to think and only time to react. It’s a cliché but when working this way, I feel more like a vessel for the paint to flow through rather than the source. In my practice I work on large scale oils, acrylics, sculpture, and assemblage, but nothing is as personal and intimate as my watercolors.