NORTHERN CALIFORNIA COLORIST

At 22 years old, after a period of deep personal reflection following the loss of my mother, I made a vow to live my life to its fullest and pursue my true passion. I left my day job to dedicate myself entirely to painting. Now, over three decades later, I remain a devoted artist, committed to what some call the "Color Visualist Movement" and others the "New American Impressionist Movement," with a focus on the techniques of the "Hawthorne-Hensche Principle."

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Modern Impressionism and the Colorist approach is not only the technique or the style in which I work; it is how I prefer to interact with the world. Painting, for me, goes well beyond the mere capturing of an object or a scene on my canvas. Each spot of color or mark I apply to my canvas is an eye-opening adventure for me—it's my attempt to represent light in action to expose the complexity and nuance of my subject. 

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Through the use of color, I hope to capture nature's ever-changing mood and revive its fleeting moments. Nature still stands as my greatest teacher, slowly guiding me in ways of seeing, ways of listening, and ways of responding.

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My artistic path is grounded in the "Hawthorne-Hensche Principle" that I've internalized after decades of learning from his students such as the late Camille Przewodek, my long-time studio mate and mentor, and other students of Henry Hensche like John Ebersberger & Cedric and Joanette Egeli from the Cape Cod School of Art to Maryland. That inheritance of "truly seeing" has deeply informed my understanding of painting the "impressionistic landscape." 

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I also trained with the late master painter Joseph Mendez, who was a student of the Russian master Sergei Bongart. That training was formative for my understanding of capturing subtlety and mood in the landscape, but his guidance in Southern California and briefly in Spain only made it more potent. As the years went by, my own practice grew to weave the systematic, academic principles of the Hawthorne-Hensche branch with the instinctual observation of the Bongart School, a synthesis that built a platform to explore light and form. Because of its focus on the subjective experience of pure color relationships, the philosophies of Sergei Bongart and Henry Hensche have encouraged me to look past the literal and to chase the characteristic quality of light in my subject.

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I continued my journey by taking workshops at Scottsdale Artists' School with well-known painters such as Gay Faulkenberry, Ken Backhaus, George Strickland, Matt Smith & Skip Whitcomb. I have worked closely with Peggi Kroll-Roberts and Ray Roberts since 2003, both of whom never cease to inspire me with their passion for exploration and learning. Teaching became a big part of my life. I enjoy introducing students to this discipline, a way of seeing the world through a mindful lens — to give students a new approach or perspective.

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Plein-air painting is an opportunity to work directly with nature, studying the nuances of light in real-time in front of the subject. Plein air is both an exercise of observation and a reflection of our relationship with the natural world. My direct approach to painting helps me to feel the pulse of the landscape or my subject, and doing so helps me to capture the brilliant, sometimes surreal characteristics that are present when standing in front of a scene. I aim to capture a tactile moment of reality.

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My work and teaching serve to continue and deepen these diverse traditions in the colorist tradition. In sharing what I have learned, I hope to encourage other artists and students to deepen their knowledge of seeing and interpreting color and light, as well as their relationship with nature, and to pass on the teachings of these amazing teachers. In doing so, I hope to ensure that the Hawthorne-Hensche principle and the traditions from the Bongart School live on, growing and evolving, continuing to inspire us to look deeper, to engage more fully, and to learn the art of "seeing."