Personal Work | Paintings

ARTIST BIO Almost from birth, the artist was influenced by nature and the beauty of all thing natural. Childhood summers were spent making trips to the divergent borders of North Carolina: the coast where his family orginated and to the mountains that harkened to his Scottish ancestry. In all his environs he found facination in the lines, colors, textures, shadows and intricate complexities of natural things. The rhythnic contours of a conch shell he plucked from the edge of a tidal wash; the diffusion of light through a quartz crystal dug from the mountain earth; the symmetrical veination in the fan of a ginko leaf fallen from a tree in his yard. As the artist grew he began to study nature through the eyes of a scientist, earning a bachalor degree of Arts in Biology from Furman Universtiy in 1981. But a clinical approach, while providing depth to his understanding of nature could not satisfy the desire in him to interpret the world around him as it filtered through his senses and psyche. So he sought the tools to express his experience and earned a bachelor of arts from Memphis College of Art in 1985. While nature has been a predominant influence on the subject of art, the impetus for the artist’s expression has been far more personal and comes largely from the people closest to him. A beloved grandmother, herself a painter of somber landscapes and delicate botanicals, instilled in him a love for the process of art and encouraged him as a child to find his own artistic voice. Her death shortly after his graduation from college inspired him to honor her through developing legacy to him—his artistic talent. ARTIST STATEMENT An emotional rush. When approaching the blank canvas, my first impulse is to not spoil it, to leave it intact and pristine. This impulse is soon overpowered by a second more egocentric urge­—to cast my mark onto its surface, to pour every color I have onto its skin, to breathe life onto this stage. Often I start with no preconceptions. My prevailing mood dictates the hues. With a brushstroke I begin, provoking the painting to take its course without fully realizing the extent of the adventure. Always in my art, as in my life, the process of creating is more important than the final creation. Beyond stillife. A recognizable subject presents the artist with endless possibilities. Given that each viewer brings to the painting his or her own innate comprehension of the subject, stillife may appear to be simple but the relationships of the fruit and supporting items begin to unfold. My work attempts to explore the relationships between man, woman, and child. The lucious maternity of the fruit is reflected in the fullness of curve, the richness of hue. The manner in which one piece touches another with a caress, a leaning, a nestling evokes a emotional connection.