Artist Statement
I paint still life as an adult artist because it is what I learned first as a child. As a single parent and a taxi driver, my mother used her taxi as a means to meet people and discover opportunities that would not have otherwise been available to me. She was instrumental in arranging a way for me to begin instruction in oil painting when she convinced a local art instructor that allowing a 12 year old aspiring child-artist into his all-adult class would not be disruptive. He agreed and stood me on an upturned milk crate so that I would be able to view the still life set up from the same vantage point as the other students. In those classes I learned composition, arrangement, brush handling, color theory, color mixing and paint application along with a dozen or so other adult students.
Over the past 40 years I have built upon that early foundation, honing my hand skills and my eye for composition and color. The author, Patricia MacLachlan wrote "what you know first stays with you," and over the years I have come to truly love the still life genre. It’s what I know. It’s where I’m comfortable. It feels like home.
Painting still life allows me to work alone and without distraction. It is a very cloistered vocation. In that regard, it is a labor which is reflective, intentional, and persistent. Still life allows me complete control in composing the tableau. I most often choose to include flowers because of their beauty and for what they represent, the acme of life. I am able to capture on canvas that moment when everything is as good as it will be. The flowers are at their most beautiful, the fruit is ripe, the light is perfect, the reflections are clear. When complete, the painting forever preserves that halcyon moment. Nature’s beauty is impermanent, but the still life will endure.