Animals • Ocean • Trees • Sky

When I was very young, I had a pet crow named Junebug. I thought he was a person, he thought I was a crow. We were the same age, kindreds. He sat close enough to examine my crayons... while I memorized the strange geometry of his wing feathers. Later there were red hens and an aqua parakeet, each a living design... with a beak. Birds and I have History. They gather in my art, lending balance and energy (even my
fish are flying).

I left a childhood with canopied
oaks and a pond... for a shoreline. I've been fortunate to have lived most of my years near the sea, plenty of time to study the light and line of it. While the ocean is basic, painting it is not. My trick is to break it down into shimmering little 'repeats' within a larger pattern.
In my work, there's nothing random about a wave...or the gulls above it.

I am a painter with an illustrator's heart, preferring that my images are clear, rendered convincingly, but with a note of drama or playful tension. I like to think it's obvious that there is joy in my work, brought forward even from childhood and my spirited 'raven-buddy'. Once you lose the fun of it, I am convinced it will show on the painted page. So, I stay joyful.