Ruined Venus Painting

One of my art teachers in High School was Robert Bateman, and I watched him paint his paintings. Although I had always painted since childhood, this close up experience with Robert Bateman really spurred my love for art. At this time I painted in acrylics. I switched to oils in my twenties, and painted landscapes and nature that I was lucky to have all around me, but also started painting my own children, and was influenced by Matisse, Van Gogh, the Fauvists and Cezanne. In 2011 I was once again taking a course in oil painting, and while travelling that year I let myself be influenced more by Bonnard, De Kooning, Cy Twombly, Mondrian. I decided then to "draw a line" under my my artistic endeavours, and to concentrate almost exclusively on abstract and expressionism. This subject matter allowed me to "sound my own depths". I set out to focus on colour as an end in itself. Images may or may not emerge. The result is the paintings here in this collection of works. My painting "Lost Time" invites the viewer to lose their way in thought and time in a simple monochromatic mass. Sometimes images emerge in my paintings. In "Salmon Migration in Toronto", despite plain, man-made obstacles, the instinct and perseverance of nature prevails. "Reflecting on Jeff Coons", is a self-portrait in part (reflection on a shop window).