“The painter should paint not only what he has in front of him, but also what he sees inside himself.”

- Caspar David Friedrich

Sometimes when I am watching a really brilliant movie or enjoying a perfectly performed ballet, I feel a momentum building in me that makes me so excited to get back into the studio and paint that it is difficult to pay attention to what is in front of me.  There are certain places that have the same powerful effect on me.  From my point of view, these are places that are calling out to be painted and I try to always pay attention.  I love to draw from observation because in the studying and drafting of the peculiarities of the particular, the meaning of the work builds and grows naturally.  Although, I am interested in accurately portraying the place that I am painting, of greater importance to me is the building of a two-fold experience for the viewer of the work.  I want the viewer to see the paint on the surface of the canvas and be drawn to the expressive quality of color, light and brushstroke, but I also want the viewer to drift into the time of day, time of year and location that I painted and experience the qualities of serenity and calm that initially inspired me to go into the studio and paint.   I have done a number of paintings inspired by a region in Ireland called the Burren.  This is not the Ireland of rolling green hills that one might imagine.  Instead, the Burren is a cold expanse of limestone pavement positioned against the Atlantic Ocean.  I was immediately attracted to its beauty and mystery.  Like a de Kooning painting, the Burren is a place of perfectly scaled parts that interlock and create a brilliantly united whole.  It is also a place where you feel a constant wind from the sea, where you are isolated from almost any sound and where you are surrounded by a near mono-chrome of a sort of blue gray.  It is a place of contemplation and calm.  As I began my first painting of the Burren, it was as though I were back in that place and I hope that the person viewing my paintings has the same experience.