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As a painter, I am proud to work in the traditions of those great Bay Area artists who went before me—from the early expressionistic landscapes of early Selden Connor Gile (1877-1947) and August Gay (1890-1948) to the mid-to-late 20th century figurative work of Elmer Bischoff (1916-91) and Richard Diebenkorn (1922-93).
My landscapes are inspired by the natural color fields of my native San Joaquin Valley. Crop rotations regularly presented different shapes and textures, and each season brought new colors in sections and rows. These geometric structures and planes that formed the wide-open landscape of my youth have always played strongly in my imagination and in my compositions.
Family ties frequently return me to the Valley, where I remain captivated by the relatively empty spaces plotted under large skies. The highways and roads slicing through these rural places divide and order space into the most elemental forms of drawing and painting. These lines and structures bear the weight of my compositions. Color ties them to emotion.
I am equally enthralled by the varied landscapes of my adopted region and those who populate it. From the agricultural fields of the Salinas Valley to the coastlines of San Mateo and Marin Counties, and from the native Oaks and rolling hills of Contra Costa County to the cityscapes and figures that give shape and beauty to the San Francisco Bay Area, elements of abstraction and formal structure are incorporated to lend ambiguity to the implied narrative of each piece. The story is left to the viewer.
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