For the past forty years the focus of my artwork has been landscape. My subject matter derives from sites throughout the American Southwest as well as from Mexico, Central America, Spain, and Poland.
I have dedicated myself to this pursuit after studying the works of master painters and draftsmen in museums. I am most influenced by European art from the period that begins in the Renaissance and ends in the late nineteenth century. The paintings of Titian, Theodore Rousseau, and Caspar David Friedrich are of particular interest as are the drawings of Leonardo Da Vinci, Peter Paul Rubens, and Paul Cezanne.
My time at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, the late sixties, coincided with a vibrant time for Chicago painting that was centered at the school. As my main influences were, and are, European paintings, until recently I thought my work was not significantly influenced by this milieu. I now see affinities in my work with the work I viewed in Chicago at that time.
My drawings are done outdoors directly from nature; my paintings are done in the studio using drawings as reference. I don’t work from photos. The paintings are done in oil. The first layers are opaque paint, followed by layers of transparent glazes. Drawings intended primarily as reference for paintings are done in pencil; stand-alone drawings have been done in charcoal, conte, and Japanese ink, separately or in combination.
The fact that I derived my income from teaching allowed me to work slowly and deliberately. Larger paintings often took a year to complete; preparatory studies alone have sometimes taken two to three months.
I think of myself as part of a long line of artists translating, in a coherent way, what they perceive visually onto a two- dimensional plane. The images in the Chauvet caves are probably the earliest extant examples of this quest, and they remain of great interest to us today.
I think of myself as part of a long line of artists translating, in a coherent way, what they perceive visually onto a two- dimensional plane. The images in the Chauvet caves are probably the earliest extant expressions of this impulse, and they remain of great interest to us today. This quest is timeless. Hopefully my efforts can bear comparison to those who forged this path before me.
