Color is a language all its own. I don’t plan anything you see here. Colors and shapes slowly build on each other and create small puzzles to solve. This is the great joy of creating abstract paintings. A silent way to create a kind of balance.
My hope is that the result surprises you. That it awakens you for a moment. Maybe brings questions or deep sighs. I hope my work stops a couple of people from thinking too much about our differences or responsibilities.
I paint in Santa Cruz, California. I work half-time as a painter and half-time as a maker’s advertiser. In the summers, I also garden a lot. Food is very important to me. I've been painting watercolor and mixed media abstracts for 12 years with no formal training.
I love responding to photos - taking spaces, landscapes, objects or thoughts and giving them a voice within a process. Creating custom abstracts means weaving important moments into paintings, thus creating for someone a frozen moment in time.
“I remember when I was there and I found this," said every collector ever. It's the joy of picking up little treasures, and I know it from my addiction of picking up tumbled glass and stones in the ocean or in rivers. Each time I look at my small collection of tumbled trash gems I am there I again: Surprised. Delighted. Slowed.
I work to fill my life with that feeling.
PROCESS
Each painting emerges and develops on its own. No plans. No sketches. No goal. Just intuition. I set little traps and puzzles for myself. Then I create a mark around each element and try to find the best way the forms on the page can interact.
Most of my pieces are composed of many, many layers of color, sometimes up to 50. Depending on what the piece needs I may also use color pencil, or inks to complete the composition. For this reason even very small paintings may take weeks to complete. Sometimes they flow more quickly.
Like my art?
Join my mailing list to learn when my art is being exhibited or is on sale!
We love abstract art when it can capture what cannot be said in words.
