From the beginning of my youth I have enjoyed doing art. My art style is colorful, experimental, and expressive. It often reflects human experience. In my portraiture and landscapes, by contrast, I have used more classic methods of painting. I have done most of my paintings in oil, although more recently I have used acrylic or colored inks. 

 

In my younger years I was fascinated with artists like Wassily Kandinsky and Franz Marc. Their use of color and shape inspired me. The California artist, Wayne Thiebaud, was an influence in the formation of my color theory. Edvard Munch was a strong influence in how he used art to express grief and emotion. This touched me deeply and it gave me freedom to do the same in my own art. The idea of color and shape expressing deeper things of the soul has always fascinated me. In many ways God uses art to minister to me and give me a way to commune with Him. The human face has always been a pursuit in my art because of the fact that we are made in the image of God, and the face is a window into who a person is. 

 

Later I began to study more impressionistic styles of plein air landscape painting under Susan Sarback. This method opened up a new way of seeing things in nature. Landscape painting became a never-ending pursuit of trying to find what colors were all around me in a new way. In landscape painting it is my goal to paint shapes and values and let those give the impression of detail. 

 

One of my favorite processes of doing art is based on classic portraiture using layers of oil paint with a good value painting underneath as a base for the portrait. 

 

Lately I have been enjoying doing ink drawings from my imagination. I have no reference material and nothing can be erased, but it produces an image that works itself out in the end, even when I don’t know what the end will be! This is a playful and freeing way of doing art. One might call it free drawing. 

 

I feel that God has created me to do art. I may not feel inclined to do art that is obviously Christian, but in many ways I do art that reflects the human condition, the beauty of life, or just to show how wonderful color is.

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Currently I am living in Thailand working with the Evangelical Alliance Mission. If you would like to learn more you can click here