Artist’s Statement . . .

I owe my style to a love for “Impressionism.” I find that period most fascinating, especially the use of broken and bright color. When I paint, I like to remember Monet’s magnificent use of color as well as his brilliant technique for demonstrating light with color. I think of Edgar Degas and Mary Cassatt for their prolific use of pastel painting. They are the inspiration that led me to the medium of pastel.

There is a wonderful immediacy with pastel. The artist does not have to spend time mixing different color values before a painting ever begins. Since there are an infinite number of colors at your fingertips, your creativity flows more spontaneously.

My technique is a stipple technique, or stroke, (small dots, small touches and small spots) on the ground I’m using. This allows a layering of color, giving greater textural feeling and depth to my subject. I came about using this technique through gradual experimentation, initially with pen and ink and later with pastel. The Masters of pointillism, Georges Seurat and Paul Signac, showed me the possibilities. I find excitement in the emergence from this dotted, or pointillistic fusion of separate colors, of optically blended landscapes, seascapes, human forms or portraits.

My choice of subjects is varied . . . impressions that capture only small moments in my experience, the warmth and wisdom of the human face, or the spiritual quality of nature . . . a shaded pool or magnificent sky. Capturing such impressions through pastels and pointillism is the focus of my art.