Red Painting with Kumquats Painting

born: Ontario, Canada 1959lives and works in St. Louis, MissouriMy paintings begin with my surroundings and my environment. I have created a studio and garden that I have filled with colors and patterns that inspire me. I am continuously changing, manipulating and adding to this still life. It is part of our home and I am observing and living in it every day. This is the way I inspire myself. The sudden play of light on a surface and the interactions of color and pattern are visually exciting. These are absorbed over time and expressed in my paintings. I always paint from life. For me there is more of interest in the physical world than I can invent. I am involved with color, line, texture and the layering of the surface of the painting. The created still life that I respond to is the vehicle for my expression. I strive for my work to be as much about paint and all of the compositional elements as it is about the subject matter. I search for the place in painting that exists between the representational and the abstract. In this created place exists the spirit of the painting. It is the place that takes the viewer away and allows for repeated visual explorations. I feel that I create pieces of beauty and interest that share my fascination with the world around me.