These intimate portraits of flowers were primarily based on flowers found in my yard and neighborhood.  I was interested in capturing the individuality of the blooms and chose to keep the backgrounds minimal and abstracted.  

Painting the landscape from direct observation has its joys and its challenges.  The light is constantly shifting.  Heat, wind, insects and passing people and animals can all become challenging distractions.  However, being on location provides so many options for composing a painting and a truer sense of color and atmosphere than can be obtained from reference photos.  Most of my landscape paintings were done, or at least brought close to completion, while working on location.  

The possibilities of still life painting are vast.  Subject matter, lighting and background colors and patterns are all up to the painter.  

This series of collages has been a playful exploration of the medium.  Each begins with a sheet of cardstock onto which I have painted a series of shapes using acrylic paint.  Once the paint has dried, I cut into the sheet, working intuitively to make a variety of colorful shapes.   This way of making paper for collages appeals to me as a painter because all of the colors, forms and patterns I'm working with are ones which I made.  Color, form, line, texture and values come together to create a mood that is the subject of each piece.  

These pieces are all matted with a neutral gray mat board and framed in a modern white frame.  Since the presentation is consistent, it's easy to create groupings of several pieces to hang together.