I did not set out in life to become an artist, for I knew at an early age that I wanted to work with plants. Becoming an artist, a watercolorist in particular, is something that happened slowly and serendipitously. By trade and by schooling, I am a horticulturist, someone who is intimately involved and enamored with the natural world. As an artist, I rather like to think that watercolor chose me.

While in high school, my art classes allowed me to explore many different media. I loved dabbling in all manner of artistic expressions, but I didn’t know that I loved watercolor until my senior year when I was allowed full artistic freedom, when I was allowed to play and to experiment, to figure things out for myself. This freedom allowed me to break free from the rules about art and nature that I had learned in my previous art classes.

What I discovered by breaking the rules of watercolor was the essence of nature: I found order within chaos, I found the big picture and the small details to be representations of one another. In developing my method of expression over the years, I have found the dynamism of the natural world. Each time I sit down to paint, I begin with a blank piece of paper and a small color palette. What happens next is never planned; I am always surprised at the forms that manifest upon the two dimensional surface.

The rules that I break as I paint rely on the dynamic interaction of three simple elements: water, color, and paper. I let the paper bend and fold with the dampness of the water. The colors blend and bleed with each other as they flow in the water and soak into the paper. These elements begin to spontaneously coalesce into something familiar, something almost tangible. These elements act to express and represent nature, a concept so powerful that it defies being clearly defined.

As I continue to develop my techniques and styles, I remain fascinated by watercolor and the subject matter that presents itself. I’m always surprised and delighted by the sensations of nature that manifest from each piece. Within my works, I hear the rustle of leaves on a tree, I feel the heat of the desert by nightfall and the coolness of the fog sliding over the hillsides, and I pause in the sunlight streaming through the tops of redwood trees. All of these sensations and realizations are what keep me painting the way that I do.

My shop is a place where this body of work can be showcased and shared with other individuals. My hope is that others will enjoy the spontaneity of my watercolors and find them as intriguing as I do as begin to work on their creation through using the elements of
water+color+paper