I am a contemporary realist painter who creates coastal, maritime, and landscapes in oil. In my work, I attempt to achieve an illusion of three-dimensional depth, atmosphere, and luminosity that represents nature.
I am primarily a studio painter and consider my plein air and figurative paintings from life as studies for my larger studio works. However, I believe painting from life is extremely important for the representational artist because there are many areas of observation that are available from life that are not available from a photograph. As a result, I believe painting from life helps me achieve my goal of representing nature. It forces me to observe nature more closely and improve my drawing skills so I can develop compositions quickly and paint faster. These skills transfer to the studio.
I am a sailor as well as an artist, and my coastal and seascape paintings are inspired by scenes observed while on sailing trips. My landscape paintings are inspired by the rural areas near my home, as well as scenes encountered during my travels.