Baltimore, MD
I am strictly a plein air painter. Originally from Virginia Beach, I earned my BFA from Moore College of Art & Design. Baltimore became my home in the late 80’s. At that time, I was working in a studio and painting still lifes. One day I looked around South Baltimore and realized that I had great subjects all for the taking. The buildings and street scenes were colorful and full of light and shadow. I dragged all my supplies out to the street, using the outdoors like a studio. A piece maybe completed in one sitting, but most works require many sittings over days or weeks, sometimes pieces are completed the following season. Drawn to color especially as it is bathed in light, investigating the colors’ reaction as it is warmed in sunlight or cooled in shadows is what draws me to my subjects. Once I started working on location, I never returned to a studio to paint.
Obviously, I am also a fan of architecture and enjoy painting a lot of details. Because of my ‘slow’ process, I only participate in only a couple of plein air events annually, preferring to work at my own pace.
My piece ‘Patterson Public House’ was painted in Baltimore on the corner of Paterson Park. This location included a lot of onlookers, which I don’t mind. Of course, as the light changes all my information shifts. In this case the shadows kept changing and becoming more to my liking, so I changed the painting as well.
