As a West Coast Canadian painter with an expressionistic nature-inspired style, my drive to create is fuelled by a longing for visceral engagement with the wild. For me painting provokes deep presence and makes unseen feeling landscapes come into focus. I am fascinated by the within of things.

Tracks and marks left behind from nature’s creations inspire me and I return again and again to taste nature’s signature in patterns, shadows, bark texture, forest sounds, moon snails, and watery movement. Painting is a way to experience and give expression to nature’s enduring vitality. I also take inspiration from weathered traces of human art-making in layers of ochre on ancient stone walls. My paintings bubble with joy, offering a hopeful yet thought provoking response to dark times rife with loss. The human-nature relationship is a recurring theme as is the tension between the elements earth, air, fire and water.

Using oil, raw earth pigment, pastel, graphite, ink, gouache, watercolour, gold leaf, stabilized with cold wax, affords maximum material freedom. Rose quartz suede, powdery baby blue and decadent Venetian gold resonate renaissance sensibilities. Lately I find myself drawn to ochre and plant pigment. I am excited by the possibility of going all-natural.

    In my series, “Earth Prayers”, wild beauty offers sustenance and hope for dark times. In “Utterances of Sunlight and Water” alchemical ciphers are juxtaposed with spontaneous wildness in an exploration of the human need to control and domesticate. In “Chasing Bliss” and “Still Chasing” paintings explore contemplation, harmony, beauty and belonging.