As a painter working mostly in oils, I am interested in the spirit and the total focus of the subject of my
painting. Horses moving in exquisite power and rhythm, the fierce beauty of a man moving with an
animal, and the signs of the past that are left on the land are catalysts to the flight of the mind sparked
sometimes just by a glimpsed expression. These images speak most eloquently to what is now.
Lately, my interest has focused on the cowboy. I am drawn to the Southwest, to the landscape, the
immediacy of the light, the sparseness of tools and trappings, and the necessary concentration of a
subject on what is at hand. ("Pay attention," is often heard by a novice when being "schooled" by a
cowboy).
I want to show some of the emotional essence, the heart of my subjects. Often when I look at the land I
sense something that speaks of the past: old trucks, overgrown clearings, wagon ruts, remnants of walls.
My goal is to express a memory rather than an exact image, an emotion triggered in an instant of light
and shadow, a speck in time. My memories of dreams and words read, are in highly saturated colors
with cropped images. There is a tension in composition different than what might be shown on the reality
of a snapshot. I want my paintings to have the impact of memories.
I live on a small ranch in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains of New Mexico. Horses and dogs and even
bears in my kitchen are my delight.
