Everything I paint is a portrait. My favorite subjects are people, flowers, animals and water. My art is an attempt to communicate the beauty of their spirit, individuality, and fragility of their world. I experiment with media and styles, mixing them with abandon. My recent art combines a variety of methods:
"Colored Pencil PhotoFusion" uses a multi-layered technique combining the best of digital photography with the classical rigor of traditional colored pencil painting. The technique maintains a photographic realism while allowing the "hand of the artist" to shine. My photographs are a jumping off point for a continuing artistic journey. I adjust and manipulate the digital originals to achieve promising base images, which are then printed on acid free artists’ papers. The translucent colored pencil layers create an evolution in color harmonies, pushing the images in ways that often create dreamlike or romanticized realities, both painterly and photographic, and recapture the feelings of a scene usually lost to the camera "eye".
"Capella" are mixed media art painted with musical accompaniment, often in coffee shops and other live music venues. These layered paintings sometimes begin as ink drawings or watercolor washes. Textural elements and colored pencil are the top layers. The textures work especially well for imaginative fantasies and pet portraits.
Alcohol Inks are brilliant, fluid colors that are especially wonderful for showing liquidity and movement, and seem well suited to themes of water, biology, and natural microcosms. The colors are vibrant on ceramic tile and glass, especially when under glass or sealed with resin.