Most of my work is done in the studio, but the body of work here was done entirely outdoors. I took a portable easel and art supplies out each day and searched for a nearby view that I thought might become the basis of a composition. Then I would try, through direct observation, to interpret and paint with some degree of verisimilitude, a little slice of the ordinary but glimmering, scintillating, rich visual world as it lay in front of me.
Working out of doors is a very concentrated experience. Every moment is urgent because the light is constantly changing. Sometimes the resulting piece is an attempt to remember, hours later, how the light had appeared when the painting was started. Other times the painting becomes a composite of various changes throughout the time spent on location, but not how it had looked at any particular time. The urgency of it all, combined with the endlessly rich mysteries of existence in our material world, makes painting pictures out of doors a heightened experience; these are some of the most elevated experiences I have had as an artist.
With all sincerity, it is my hope that viewers will enjoy this little pictorial diary as much as I did while working on it.
