Lyrical Abstraction

This body of abstract painting comprises reflections of Italy, Japan, the Middle East and Western Massachusetts as well as distillations of their cultures. My favorite materials are encaustics, water based paints and varnishes, nautical charts, oxidized metal leaf, graphite and charcoal on both hardboard panels and watercolor paper. The result can be seen as a cool amalgam of both a moment or a lifetime. This process, the addition and subtraction of color and the manipulation of the leaf through patination, pushes the limits of water based mediums, and forces their compatibility with metals. Through this tension and transformation the work becomes a travelogue of modern and antique imagery. The Asian influence on my work comes from study of Japanese architecture and calligraphy. The Italian influence is from a few wonderful years living in Milan, and subsequent return visits.

I have been fortunate to have been invited by our government to teach abstract art in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to artists in three locations, both in 2009, 2013 and again in 2015. This has been a transformational adventure.

Western Massachusetts, where I now live, provides inspiration in the form of ever changing beauty and urgency. Now that I have traveled a bit in the Middle East - Morocco, Jordan, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia - the desert, the pace and rhythms of the Berber and Bedouin, the colors and particularly the music are influencing my work in new ways. In my attempt to reveal underlying structures and reconnect eras, I have come to realize that these references are wonderfully compatible. I am influenced by the great Modernists and the Abstract Expressionists, as well as sublime music and poetry. Gesture, serenity, memory, elegance and the thrill of the hunt are my main motives in painting. I am a process oriented artist, using materials at hand in new and unconventional ways.