I depict the beauty of the textural richness that I find everywhere so entrancing: in dried leaves and honeycombs, charred tree trunks, in wave patterns in the sand, and in primitive marks. The varied formal structures of nature provides the foundation for these paintings, and color is their lure, with highly focused color harmonies ranging from cool grays to vivid, saturated colors. Most recently I have been captivated by the beauty of wood panels, and these provide the basis and inspiration for my carved paintings that explore the visual and tactual joys of nature. This work is influenced by Japanese art and by the California Arts and Crafts movement, with their shared insistence on grace and compositional beauty. The poetic impulse also somehow plays a part, and Pablo Neruda offers a telling insight:

“Blossom and water and wheat kernel share one precious consistency: the sumptuous appeal of the tactile.”

It is this common but endlessly varied tactility that moves me to create artwork.