Blogging is new for me and I had lots of questions about what I wanted the experience to be. After too much time vacillating on what to say, I decided to just start – anywhere, but begin. So here goes!

I’m starting with a few thoughts reflecting on my recent past. The virus and shut down has increased the momentum of change for me. I feel like I am trying to catch up to myself.

New York City had been my home since the early 80’s. I moved there as a figurative painter influenced by artists on the west coast in Seattle and the Bay Area. I was a big fan of Joan Brown, Richard Diebenkorn and Wayne Thiebaud. Over time New York shaped the direction of my work toward conceptual tendencies. The process was internal, working with abstract ideas and less about looking outward. If you are interested in a sampling of what that looked like go to my archive page. The Interiors on the home page menu are also a version of the constructed landscapes. I am happy with some of this work and stand by it but it has become a new point of departure.

After years of living and working in a Brooklyn loft, I moved back to my home state in late October 2019, just before Covid-19 struck. The busy, noisy streets of NYC were replaced with lots of sky and fast moving cold weather patterns. My large live/work space in Brooklyn was downsized into a two-bedroom apartment in Montana. One of the bedrooms is now my studio. How has all of this changed my work? And me? Short term I started painting from observation on a daily basis in January of this year and posting them on social media. It helped focus my attention on what was going on in the present. I started painting outside or plein air and switched back to using oils. These two changes alone were big.

I am smitten with plein air painting. I enjoy the idea of making the whole experience of being out in nature part of the painting. This includes choosing the place or letting it choose me. Just the logistics of packing into and setting up becomes part of. But the greater ingredients in the painting come from the sights, sounds and smells. The gusty wind and hot sun or cold can determine the length of a painting session painting. So everything I see and feel around me feed into the painting. Keeping that in mind the journey is infinite.