Contemplating the Pacific Northwest in Oil Pastels: Coastal Landscapes and Still Lives
I was born and raised in the Pacific Northwest and I presently live and work here.
As a young man, I traveled to Europe. I settled in the Netherlands where I apprenticed to Dutch abstract artist Henk Brokke. He became my mentor, to whom I am deeply indebted. I studied drawing, painting and printmaking as well as many media of sculpture, including my favorite – restoration stone carving.
Wherever I traveled, I sought the contemplative life. I found it in European art from early western Christian art, Byzantine mosaics, Georgian icons, and Giotto, to the 17th century Dutch masters, especially Jan Vermeer.
I was also influenced by artists of the modern era: the post-impressionists, Van Gogh and Cezanne, the later Braque, Modigliani portraits. American watercolorist and landscape expressionist John Marin holds a peculiar fascination for me, as do, in contrast, the abstract paintings of Mark Rothko.
I feel most at home with the simple still lives and landscapes of the Italian painter Giorgio Morandi whom I fell in love with four decades ago.
I have now returned to the Pacific Northwest, working in my studio in a small logging town in the state of Washington. I have discovered and come to love oil pastels.
You will find Morandi’s contemplative influence in the still lives I paint on rainy days. On dry days, I paint the coast and its hinterland. In my landscapes, the Dutch experience shines through most emphatically. A collector calls all my work contemplative, even my paintings of our wild coastal landscape. I let you decide for yourself.
Although I focus on coastal landscapes and still lives, I also paint portraits and other subjects. Contact me for photos. I am available for commissions.
