Artist Statement

My primary interest is in exploring the people, places, and ideas that make up the world around me. I enjoy engaging with the world and expressing that engagement through art. I like immediacy and freshness in my work, which has meant discarding as much technological baggage as possible, and using very traditional materials and techniques. I currently work mostly in pastel, oil, encaustic, and etching. I am not adverse to science or technology (my own philosophy of art has been heavily but indirectly influenced by my background in mathematics and statistics), it just means that they should not be allowed to interfere with the direct exploration of life through art.

My current work is focused on intimate portraits, working collaboratively with models and sitters over a period of time to investigate the human condition on the basis of independent individuals. My primary influences have been the humanist artists from the Reformation and the Northern Renaissance through to the Expressionism of the early 20th Century; I find the general dehumanization of art from the First World War on to be uninteresting and somewhat depressing (although there are certainly exceptions).

Biography

I learned art basics from my father, who was himself an artist; my first participation in a show and sales were in the late 1960's. I don't, in general, participate in shows, and prefer to sell my work privately or work on commission.