Ali with Mask I Painting

I am a live event painter. Wedding painting has been my main focus of work for the last 8 years... I organize a weekly figure drawing session in my community, this is my playtime. I am passionately dedicated to painting. I started oil painting when was 12 years old. Painting from life or on location enables me to use all of my senses. I work quickly and intuitively, laying down a damp tone on the canvas and then create compositional indications in paint of the subject. I try to feel the land and how I am connected to it. Time of day, atmosphere, temperature, light, movement, season...all inform my paintings. This allows sensory exploration into a combination of representation and painterly abstraction. At the same time, I use illusion to visually represent what draws us in and brings our insides out. When it feels like a poem, I know it is completed. I serve on the board of directors of my Orange County Arts Council, NY.