ARE YOU/HAVE YOU BEEN WORKING ON ANY NEW PAINTINGS?
I have been watching and documenting the transition from winter into spring as I see it here at home. And looking forward to the colors of warmer weather, I’m making pastels of my front garden as it looks in summer in full bloom. It’s kind of a tricky, hit-or-miss spot for growing, so I have planted a variety of wildflower seeds over the years. What comes up is different every year.

Kitchen Garden, pastel

WHAT TYPICALLY INSPIRES YOUR CREATIVITY? AND WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE SUBJECT MATTER TO PAINT? AND WHY?
The places in my drawings are my home where I have lived for over ten years: my gardens, river, and woods. My intimate drawings are meditations on the familiar and the passing of time.

Being present here day after day, season after season, I have come to recognize early signs of change: an angle of light, a warming just before spring, the fading of late summer. I make several drawings of the same favorite spots, and document my experience of the changes of days, rhythms of seasons, differences from one year to the next. Same places, different times. With each working, a different mood, a change of focus.

While I love painting, drawing is the most natural process for me. Working with pastels has an irresistible immediacy. There is no tool between the pigment in my hand and the drawing surface. Emphasizing marks and materials, my goal is to maintain a balance allowing the landscape to emerge with my marks.

I work from nature because it is where I feel most alive and connected. My experience of nature is of life and of movement. Through my artwork I am trying to capture some of that energy moving past my eyes, through sun and light, fresh air in my lungs.

The three pastels shown here are all available through SMALL WONDER GALLERY.