I discovered my passion for oil painting at an early age, inspired by my childhood on the Pacific Northwest coast. The shorelines, fields, and vineyards of my native Oregon, and later the Mediterranean countryside, supply the scenes and subjects of my work.

While creating a painting, I strive to communicate a sense of energy and emotion, and to capture the attention of the viewer by enhancing the subject at hand, using a palette of predominantly warm, vivid colors and large, rhythmic brush strokes. My paintings are representational of actual locations, but by simplifying the shapes of nature, I transform the landscapes into a more contemporary or abstract realism. At the same time, the simplification allows each shape to assume, as in the individual words of a haiku, a greater symbolic weight and significance.

From my studio on the banks of the Willamette River, I continue to express myself through the use of color. As a painter, I challenge myself to create a wide spectrum of emotion and visual interest in every painting. Each new painting brings me a renewed sense of wonder and fascination.