Bio
I grew up surrounded by wolves and bears
(but was not raised by them) in Campbellford Ontario, Canada however
since my Mother wasn't terribly fond of all that untamed wildlife
or outhouses we all moved back to her civilized hometown of Rochester,
NY. The commitment to paint and pursue art took firm hold at age 12
because of a beautiful dream. I've lived up and down the East Coast,
travel extensively in the US and Europe, painting the whole way! Besides
painting I've been in TV pilots and by happy accident got a role in
a movie called "Everybody Wants to be an Italian". I also
had an extremely brief career as a Sea Shanty singer/street performer
where I learned what stage fright really means, hence running right
back to my studio and have stuck to painting and only singing in the
shower ever since.
I have exhibited widely over the US and
in Canada, been a grateful recipient of grants from the Rochester
Arts Council, New York State Council on the Arts and Massachusetts
Cultural Council, enjoyed artist-in-residencies at the American Academy
in Rome, Pouch Cove, Newfoundland and in the Dune Shacks at the Cape
Cod National Seashore. I am represented by the Lyman-Eyer Gallery
in Provincetown, MA and an exhibiting member of the Provincetown Art
Association Museum and Salmagundi Club in New York City.
Statement
My artwork springs from a need for wide
open spaces, an obsession with weather - particularly clouds, passionate
love of nature, the joy of travel and an unbounded curiosity. There
is a peripatetic quality to my work because no matter where I go paintings
emerge from every journey near or far. Ideally I’d prefer to
spend most of my time doing en plein aire painting, which simply means
painting in the fresh air, than studio work. Generally all my paintings
begin because of the way light falls on something and it catches my
breath then emotion enters in. My paintings of the sea are meant to
be meditative but they also allow me to fully engage my obsession
with weather/clouds and my need for huge amounts of space. Which is
the same reason I have fallen in love with the Southwest...all that
space and how excited they get when they see a cloud. I find European
cities to be beautiful, full of crazy angles and fascinating architecture
but also energizing so my urban work reflects that. My first love
has always been landscape so I go out into nature as much as possible.
I respond to place and experience so you
will see differences in style between the works but in fact I cannot
imagine why one would paint a seascape and the desert the same way.
And when I’m at the beach or exploring nature it’s a very
different appreciation from what I see when in a city. I try to saturate
the work with what I’m aware of when I'm visiting the beach feeling
the sun and salt spray, roaming an ancient Italian village or hiking
in the high desert or exploring the juicy Northeast, each subject
has its own personality.