Artist Statement

I paint landscapes, cityscapes, figures and still lifes from observation. My approach has become more loose and non-descriptive. I’m ultimately looking for beauty and emotion in all things. Of course, I’m also looking for the aesthetic concerns of a painting – expressive brushstrokes, form, space, color and light.

When painting a figure, I want to find where it is in space and how it relates to everything else in the painting. I’m also searching for color relationships, trying to weave form and color together. I try to convey a certain emotion or mood I feel from the model.

Drawing is essential to my work. I usually start with a drawing in charcoal, although the approach may vary. Sometimes I start with paint right away to find the form or I might draw into the paint. I apply transparent and opaque paint. I often have a combination of earth tones and chromatic colors.

Painting cityscapes, landscapes and still lifes, I’m still working from observation, but under natural light. The subject is important to me, although what really matters is making sense of it visually. It has to suggest a certain feeling. It’s usually places that are part of my world, for example, scenes from Randall’s Island where my kids played soccer for many years, or rooftops that I see every day from my window.

I like to paint a subject in a continuous moment, without interruption, working through a certain emotion or sense of excitement. Of course, I rarely finish a painting at once. So the challenge is to find that emotion every time I come back to continue work on the canvas.

It doesn’t quite matter what inspires me to do a particular painting. What matters is that it’s connected to the life source. I’m interested in translating what I see into a painted representation. Of course, what I see, I see through my own eyes.

A Color Study, Pastel, 2006

Irene, Pastel, 2009