Lunch At The Ahwahnee, Yosemite Painting

Signature member of American Impressionist Society (AIS),Signature Member of Laguna Plein Air Painters Association (LPAPA); an Artist Member of California Art Club (CAC), and Oil Painters of America (OPA). All my childhood and youth I lived and breathed music. The transition from playing piano to transferring this inner music on canvas with oil paint happened later in life. I see my art as visual music. I try to bring it to life with harmonious colors, which emanate joy and peace. I infuse each of my brush strokes with its own kind of melody. My hope is that the viewers will hear the sounds and rhythms of that music as they look at my work, and it will generate the same emotions and connections that I had when painting that piece. I am inspired by the way light shapes the landscape, and I strive to capture it on canvas. I often paint en plein air (on location), which allows me to use all my senses to interpret a scene in front of me with a sense of immediacy and honesty. I choose to paint in oils, because I love their robust quality of bright, luminous colors, which are easily bendable and capable of retaining texture and showing brushstrokes. My favorite starting point for the landscape painting is the golden light of late afternoon, known as the “magic hour”, which creates the most intriguing and fascinating effects by merging captivating shadow patterns and warm, luminous color of the setting sun.