Artist’s Statement Oct. 2010

The aim of my art is to express a lucid and passionate vision of the west coast landscape that breathes with light, depth of space and modulated form. I carefully compose each painting to communicate a unique and specific mood that expresses my deepest feelings for the subject at a particular time of day. I strive to make balanced compositions and harmonious tonal and colour relationships using a broad chromatic range. My aims are classical in that I strive to make the paintings vibrant, yet calm so they can strengthen the viewer and spread a kind of energetic sanity.

The artists that have influenced me the most are Paul Cezanne, Edward Hopper, Emily Carr and E. J. Hughes. An attraction to sunlight and shadow, a strong love of place and reverence for nature guide my involvement. My view of life is centered in a meditative practice rooted in the expression of love and gratitude for the beauty of creation. I am drawn to nature both for its compelling vitality and resonance with my own feelings but also as a “flight from narcissism,” to use Northrop Frye’s expression. In other words making representational art confronts me with objective qualities that belong to an “other”, a subject that transcends the limits of my vision. In this way making art becomes an adventure in seeing and a call to deepen.

I live most winters in the Cowichan Valley and summers on Pasley Island where my family has a cabin. These two locations provide me with ample subject matter for painting. I am very fortunate to return to these places each year. I believe, however, that wherever I am, everything around me includes and hides the sacred. Seeing it, feeling it and painting it requires a passionate spirit, an engaged heart and an alert mind.