Spur Cross Ranch Daydream, Cave Creek, Arizona Painting

Choosing natural surroundings or found objects, I am an impressionist painter whose work is grounded in the 19th and 20th century realist traditions, but characterized by loose brush strokes, simplified details, and the suppression of transitional tones. Born into a family of art dealers, artists and collectors, I prize visual literacy and feel so lucky to have had early exposure to fine art. A secondary influence from my family would be an appreciation for the natural world, including botany, ornithology, and entomology, which manifested in a childhood with many outdoor adventures in what I would call "assisted looking" which happened for me because my guide, my father in this case, was a naturalist and scientist of boundless curiosity. Impressionist also by conviction, an "art spirit" as Robert Henri describes, all the subject matter I need I find by just looking around the natural world, "being there," and whisking the colors down before the light changes too much. My mission as a painter is to touch passersby, one at a time, to inspire a pause, maybe a memory, a smile, invite curiosity or wonder, and especially for me, were I to have that chance, a conversation. In my understanding of the impressionist mission, it is only a fountain of enthusiasm inside each artist, with little understanding or care about the judgment of the audience, a compulsion to quickly capture a moment, it's light and especially it's mood. While I was there and you, my viewer, weren't, if I can share with just pigments, not words, what I thought was most sublime in the time I had with the light and shadows, the scent and sense, what I couldn't help but see in what was before my eyes, I'm happy.