artist statement

I see beauty in our aging urban strata. In Hamilton, Ontario, where I reside, the effects of nature over time have eroded the buildings and infrastructure, transforming them greatly. I look too at the banal and mundane - tract-housing, parking lots, apartment blocks - and find challenge in exploring the traditional and narrow view of what is beautiful.

Geometry features prominently in my work; I endeavor to keep the composition orderly, relying on layered areas of complex colour to complement the simple lines. Although people rarely appear in my paintings, I'm always conscious of the impact that these places have over the individual. I let the buildings take centre stage and allow the "presence" of man to be felt via the architecture. These buildings, hence, are personified and in effect the paintings become “building portraits”.

I use dry media (pastels, pencils, charcoal, conte), then create a 'wash' by brushing over the paper surface with solvent or distilled water. My colour palette is vivid and earthy like the subjects I paint - using very few colours to achieve the results I am after. Influences are drawn from colourists like Henri Matisse and Richard Diebenkorn who, aside from their genius for composition, shape and colour, both straddled the line between realism and abstract.

Lately I have been particularly drawn to alleyways, both in the Hamilton core and parts of Toronto. The solitude I find here enables me to more closely dissect these scenes into forms, striving to capture the stillness of the alleys in an uneasy, voyeuristic sense.