Cottonwood on Chama River Painting

I tend to paint either forest landscapes or nocturnes. I am inspired by the beauty in nature; that everything is just so. I also feel that at night our influence wanes and the natural beauty of things takes over again. I have always liked the delicacy and perhaps the demanding nature of watercolor, and prefer to work in this medium most of the time. I have many influences and painters whom I admire, of course. I studied under a wonderful Australian artist named Geoffrey Dupree in London, and then afterwards I was inspired by the large oil landscapes of Neil Welliver. I love the fact that the large size tends to draw the viewer into them, and prefer to work large when I am able for that reason. I work from photographs that I take while out on rambles, as the paintings take me a while and the light changes too much while working plein air, although I do studies on location from time to time. My work is pretty representational, and I try and use the work as a meditation on what I am seeing and on the impulse to honor the natural world.