Painting What Makes Me Stop and Look

I am drawn to landscapes, gardens, trees, and the changing color and light around me in Aiken. I am not interested in simply reproducing exactly what I see. I want to understand what made me stop and look—and then translate that experience through color and paint.

My work has been influenced by the expressive color and brushwork of Vincent van Gogh and Henri Matisse, but each painting is also shaped by a particular place, a memory, or the mood I bring into the studio that day.

Beginning Without Knowing the End

I usually begin with questions. What will I paint? What size should it be? Does the composition need a grid, or should I simply start?

I prepare the canvas with a light wash of yellow ochre, establish the horizon, and draw only enough to give the painting structure. Beyond that, I rarely know exactly where the work will lead. I prefer to discover it through the process of painting.

Looking Through Different Lenses

Teaching art has reinforced my belief that creativity depends on curiosity, patience, and the confidence to follow an individual point of view. I encourage my students to explore without fearing mistakes, and I ask the same of myself.

As a painting develops, I step back, move closer, squint, change the light, and turn the canvas upside down. Each perspective reveals something different. If the painting is not working, I may paint over it and begin again. That is not a failure—it is part of discovering what the work needs to become.

When Is a Painting Finished

“Finished” is a difficult word for me. I can nearly always find another area to reconsider or refine. Eventually, a painting reaches a point when its color, structure, and feeling belong together. It feels resolved, even though I may continue to notice something new each time I look at it.

That sense of continued discovery is what I hope the paintings offer others: not only an image of a place, but a reason to pause, look again, and experience something familiar in a different way.