Artist Statement

My earliest memories are from my formative years spent amongst the forests, lakes and streams of the Upper Great Lakes Region, where I was early drawn to Nature … Nature in all her variety; storms lashing windswept coasts, and cloudless Summer mornings; the broad sweep of the Land and the Sea; Her more diminutive nooks and crannies, such as a single shell on the sand at one’s feet, or the dew on a spider’s web in an ancient stone wall at morning; a cliff-top covered in wildflowers by the sea, or a single blossom set against the green turf; the falling leaf, or leaves, of Autumn; the footprint of some wild creature, or the animal itself, may catch my eye … and hold it for awhile; to look into the Sun as it sets, or later, when the light is fading and the first Star of Evening appears, or the Moon rising over the distant hills, or setting over the edge of the Sea; when the long shadows of early morning or late afternoon stretch across the Earth; and the light and the shade, and the cools and the warms of colour, contrasting in harmony, sometimes singing bright, at other times resting in quiet subtlety; all these myriad Moments; to observe and to compose them; to capture them and to inscribe them in my Memory; this is what drew me to the Discipline of Art.  This is why I paint.  Nature is venerable … Nature is timeless … and Nature, in whatever form, will be … long after the works of Man have gone.