After working for decades with urban found objects, I came to a point where I needed to refresh. "Go back to nature" is the old advice to artists. Working from nature gave me a new connection to painting. Working in watercolor was a medium that I loved and feel is the "essence" of painting–I painted mostly on location at three sites: Giggle Hollow, Parkers Falls, and Otter Falls. Finding the right site was like finding my "spot" on the earth–also like a found object for me. Water, its interaction and influence on landscape
was my focus. I chose to give the feeling of being embedded in the landscape–no horizon line. Once I picked my view, I painted everything in sight–gathering information, doing research. Finally, I wanted to shape the landscape impressions. That meant working in the studio toward some kind of transformation. First it was blowing up transparent watercolors into impasto acrylic paintings. Then it was translating studies into black and white brush ink drawings. These lead to my current paintings.