ARTIST STATEMENT  

I have always had a keen interest in drawing and painting. The subject matter includes architecture, landscapes and cityscapes. These vary and my technique and skill as an artist has evolved as well. The works on exhibit represent a retrospective of artwork from travel sketches done over the last 35 years.

All my work reflects an interest in composition, the creative process and a desire to express what I see, my mind interprets and I am able to capture on paper. For practical reasons, the stimulus for my creative process often coincides while traveling and enjoying scenic views of streets and plazas, architecture and nature. My work incorporates light and shadow, geometric shapes, textures, colors, composition and structure.

Many were done while traveling in Italy ; last fall in Sicily and this past spring in England . Several were done while visiting New Mexico, Puerto Rico and the Yucatan Peninsula . I usually take a visual scan looking for some feature or scene that is of interest and appeals to me. All of these works were done outdoors and completed in several hours and sometimes much longer. I use a very light pencil at the beginning and then complete the sketch in pen and ink or watercolors on site.

My artistic training began at an early age in Ohio at the Toledo Museum of Fine Arts, later drawing studios in the US and Europe and undergraduate and graduate study in architecture and urban design. During the last five years at Ghost Ranch in Abiquiu, New Mexico, I have taken painting classes with Pamona Hallenbeck, an established watercolor artist from Elgin, Texas; and in the Southern Berkshires, I also have worked on still life and plaine air compositions with watercolor artist Susie Crofut.