Reservoir, Spring Painting

I was born in Geneva, Switzerland, have lived in Canada, and currently reside in Connecticut. In college, I had a very academic education and, realizing that I had to make a living, majored in printmaking and illustration. After graduating, I became a full-time freelance children's book illustrator. I started painting mid-career and have been painting professionally ever since. Four years ago I revisited my past and started making monotypes. I have been influenced by a number of artists and artistic movements over the years but those that really resonate with me are Vermeer, Hammershoi, Randall Exon, Diebenkorn, and Homer. My preferred medium is oil on canvas. However, I also enjoy creating monotypes because there is a degree of freedom and serendipity that characterizes the process. Light, air, and the meaning of time are the three elements that I try to address in my paintings and prints. Light governs the compositions both in my landscapes and interiors. It is the foundation from which I depart on the journey to find the meaning of the painting. I start a canvas by addressing all the formal and traditional aspects such as composition, color, design, and so on. Light defines form, which is very concrete, but it also serves as the catalyst for delving into the ephemeral effects of air and atmosphere which help to clarify the sense of place. This all comes about intuitively as the painting starts to reveal to me where it wants to go and what it is all about. The third element in my work, time, has taken on a progressively greater importance as I have realized how rich and complicated are its implications. Moments, memories, reveries, beginnings, endings, and longings are all part of what it is to be a human being in this world. Through my work I hope that viewers can experience a sense of place and time and its significance for themselves. Some of the public collections which have my work are: New York Presbyterian Medical Center, New York, NY Reader’s Digest Foundation, Pleasantville, NY Wachovia Bank, N.A., New Haven, CT Federal Reserve Bank, New York, NY Hunter Museum of Art, Chattanooga, TN.