Painting has been for me a visual autobiography. I have recorded scenes and events that impressed and excited me. Often these have been quiet situations that otherwise might be overlooked. Wherever I travel I am on the lookout for the beauty and drama of the scene around me. Most contemporary lives are rushed and often hectic. I, many times, choose situations to paint that most people might miss. I feel that an artist is one who really looks. This intense observation is a primary activity of a painter. Particularly one who works in the realistic idiom. Although painting and so-called realism are not in vogue or on the cutting edge of the present-day art world, I profess that I may be in the avant garde. Cubism, and all the other isms that have evolved, are forty to a hundred years old. Perhaps it is time to rediscover the American art that evolves from Homer, Sargeant, and Hopper. I claim that heritage. |