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Artist’s Statement
The evolution of patterns in my art began in the late 1970’s when I started my teaching career. As an avid gardener, surfer, and world traveler, I appreciated the intricate patterns of the flora and fauna that surrounded me. As a result, my art focused on the smallest of natural subjects. These images were fragmented in a cubist style and presented in a highly realistic manner, yet contained the intricate dots and lines that later became the trademark of my contemporary works of art. As time progressed, my subject matter focused more intensely on the oceans of the world.
My immersive journeys led me to Australia where I had a profound experience studying the types of patterns and symbolism used by many aboriginal artists throughout the country. The paintings began to transform into images made of cross hatched lines, concentric circles, and stylized subject matter as opposed to realism. This style later morphed into one which I created using the smallest of lines and patterns that reveal my visions of the oceans and gardens of the world.
The tools of this creative process are an important and unique way of creating a painting. I use very long liner, scroller, and pin stripe brushes to create my works of art with my own marking system of patterns. I like to give the impression of realism from a distance, but when viewed up close, you can see the abstract patterns that make up the subject matter. I enjoy creating a complicated yet fanciful patterned surface that evokes an emotional response in the viewer.
Much like my painting, my photography of ocean waves and surfers is from a very unique angle, while treading water well over my head with no board or floatation device, all year in virtually every temperature range. I use a canon 7D Mark II and a custom carbon fiber CMT water housing with a variety of lenses for conditions all year long in the frigid Atlantic Ocean. I capture the dynamic ever changing turbulence and beauty that waves create in diverse conditions and environments with a passion for everything ocean related.
Exploding Right, Pendleton © 2019, 30” x 40”, acrylic on canvas
My paintings are first researched and developed in the ocean and then I draw them by hand on black canvas filling each layer with millions of tiny pin striped lines and swirls, often applying glazes over each section of patterns. Liner brushes, scrollers, and pin strip brushes are my main weapons of mass instruction.
Some of the camera gear that I use to capture the dynamic and challenging ocean world.
The Aquatech Elite II housing and ports…
At the office…
The Aborigines in Alice Springs, Australia had a profound impact on the work that I do in painting and the processes involved. World travel continues to influence what and how I paint the world around me.