Hiking and exploring are my form of personal escape. It helps me to gain peace of mind and stimulate my sense of curiosity. I employ oils to paint landscapes from my adventures to permanently recapture the feelings of those memories.

With nature as my guide I am attracted to two conditions within a landscape: simplicity of abstract shapes and contrast in value. These paintings are views that take the common and make them extraordinary.

I paint realistically but am not chained to realistic color. By staying true to the value of any given shape within the painting I am able to portray a realistic scene and choose colors I need to recreate my memory of that scene. In this way I am creating a painting and not just reproducing an image.

I use a minimal palette of primary colors plus white; meticulously mixing all of the colors for my palette has become a prepainting ritual. As I prepare the palette I reflect on the memories I am about to recreate. I attempt to create landscapes that have an intense luminosity.

Through the simple beauty of this limited palette, which resonates throughout my landscapes, I hope to instill a sense of peace within the viewer.