I Paint to Belong

Cities symbolize our greatest accomplishments, laying claim to territory, even our destiny. Each city is a collective artwork relentlessly created, and destroyed, by its inhabitants, culminating in a shared vision. I interpret this vision to claim my place in the collective creation, to prove I do indeed belong. I am an explorer, and the urban skyline is my pristine wilderness.

The play of light on geometric forms seduces me, and the city becomes a source of infinite inspiration within a shared context. Light reflects, traverses or refracts, an endless kaleidoscope, thus my preference for oil paint. Oil alone has a transparent quality that transforms painted light and shadow as if the sun moves across the substitute sky. In his last days, when my grandfather could no longer look out his window, he thrilled as my painting, hanging nearby, changed with the passing hours, as if he could still see outside.

My deep passion for and years of experience drawing have made composition intuitive and instantaneous. My chosen palette of complementary colours highlights inherent contrasts; rough stone and brick made smooth, structures cool to the touch on the hottest days, street “canyons” darker in daytime shadows than under nighttime neon and architectural styles of many generations jockey for supremacy. I eliminate human artifacts; traffic, crowds and signs all disappear to make space for you to enter and explore (inhabit?) my world.

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