There can be so many approaches to putting paint on the canvas you have to learn from the best and then make whatever you learn your own.
When painting, I like to respond to my surroundings or the image I am making and try not think too much about what I am doing but just let it happen. I paint primarily with oils and glazes because I like the glow and luminescence they give my paintings. I use a bright yet complex palette that enables me to put as much life onto the canvas as I can. I enjoy painting on canvas and making large strokes that carry the viewer across the image. Currently, I am focusing on painting landscapes of forests, lakes, and marshes influenced by time spent in western Maine.
For portraits, I paint from live models. My focus is capturing the lights and the darks and the color—“painting the differences between things” as Matisse has said.
For my landscapes, although I have done some plein air painting, I most often paint in my studio in western Maine using reference photos that I have taken of the landscape that surrounds me there. The changing light and the changing seasons create both the calm and the excitement that I try to bring to each canvas.
