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Every
landscape has its own special timbre, harmonies of colors and textures.
Each area has its own distinct dialect, nuances and contrasts. My
paintings are my response to these forces; and, as in the leaves
of a journal, they are a record of the places I have grown to love
and of my travels to new lands. My earliest memories are of a camping
trip to Pecos in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, not far from Santa
Fe. For a very young boy, growing up on the flat, hot, arid plains
of the Llano Estacado, the mountains were like a luscious paradise.
The trees, the running water and the light, embedded themselves in
my memory and it became my mission to return one day to live and
paint. This memory and the influence of the Taos Founders, introduced
to me by my father are part of the reason why I started to paint.
For years I have painted primarily in New Mexico. The organic sculptural forms
of adobes, the mountains and undulating lower ground; pinons, arroyos,
fruit trees in the springtime and aspens in the fall are all a visual feast
to me, but it is the clarity of light which makes all these elements so
extraordinary. Since marrying another painter, Lynne
E. Windsor, I have added Florida and Europe to my painting repertoire,
especially France and Italy, but also England and Scotland. The ancient
stone buildings,
the mountains and valleys, fields of sunflowers and lavender have at once
been familiar, but refreshingly different.
The land has an emotional and physical effect on me. This is why I am primarily
a plein air painter. My desire is to convey in my paintings the essence
of a place. Sublimating the aromas of the lavender in Southern France,
the ocean smells of Florida ; the fragrant marjoram as I stand on
the roadside in Italy and paint a field of sunflowers or the luminescence
of
a late
New
Mexico
afternoon
- when
the light makes that leap to another level of saturation, are all important
factors. Being totally immersed in the nuances of the land is what inspires
me to paint and is essential for the renewal of my spirit.
Santa
Fe, 2009 |
