Point Reyes Open Studios

My acrylic paintings grow out of a love of Point Reyes, where I'm lucky enough to live. Most days I'm outside, making sketches and taking photographs, zeroing in on what I call "the bones of the landscape"; the way the hills slope behind each other or the way tree branches interweave. I bring back drawings to my studio and work with light and space, simplifying the forms of rocks, meadows, tide pools, and forests until they breathe and come alive on paper.

As an artist, I'm a believer in "the happy accident" and work freely and intuitively with my hands. I've developed my own method of building up layers of paint and then erasing them to create depth and a vibrant sense of color.

I've been inspired and influenced by Arthur Dove, Milton Avery, and the 19th century California landscape painters, all of whom were able to see the landscape freshly.

In my collages, I'm playing with and celebrating the sensual life, religious iconography, politics and the absurd with equal opportunity humor.