I often paint places I know by heart, returning over and over to certain themes and compositions. There is something about the shoreline between land and water, about the intersection where treetops meet air, about the edge of a field and the woods which make me look. The places that I paint seem to hold a piece of me and I am compelled to explore that resonance.

Painting is a way to re-create the almost visceral experience of the desire to name my perceptions. And observation is not an end but a beginning point for a formal, emotional and imaginative statement of exploration. I believe in the responsive energy that comes from painting directly in front of the motif: the give and take between painter and subject, between painter and painting. Through painting, I arrive at a sense of place: a combination of thought and feeling in which memory and anticipation forge my senses into understanding and in the process, nurtures and sustains an essential part of me.