I refer to these pieces as Modern Romantic. Embracing my favorite part of the Romanticism movement, I aspire to experience and understand the world through emotion and feeling. My pieces are born from my subconscious, fusing my memory with my perception of an idealized scene. I start each painting with only a loose sense of a specific memory and a vision of where light will reflect. The rest transcends through many fine layers and compositional arrangements.

Though subtle, some pieces have emerged with hints of the many landscapes I have witnessed - ranging from my time living in Wyoming, Vermont, and Colorado to my travels in Southeast Asia, Australia, the Caribbean, and Europe to my home base in Maryland and summers spent in the Adirondack Mountains.

I purposely blur or ‘fog’ my paintings to force the viewer to perceive the scene as a whole. By eliminating tight detail, the eye is not distracted by ‘this or that'. The viewer is able to perceive the scene as a moment. My hope that such ambiguity enables each viewer to connect with the scene in his or her own way and pull from a personal memory- a place, a feeling, or a time.

In my Seascapes series, my mind tends to want to be calm and centered as I create them. Long horizontal brushstrokes lead me to a nautical scene that feels familiar and meditative. 

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Mountains can be a very demanding image. They are breathtaking and detailed and full of majesty, life, and danger. I like to present them as complementary to a scene. That they should have as much focus as the grasses, trees, or water before them is important. I love how the various earthly wonder all become one when presented out of focus or "blurred".

My works on paper have inspired an exciting process to create a setting for my images. I only prime a small rectangular area to paint on so that the surrounded unprimed and unpainted paper acts as a built-in frame mat. On some cases the edges are not completely perfect where the paint meets the unprimed paper, leaving a very subtle note to the rustic nature of art making set against the very clean and perfectly placed "rectangle of art". Though I fight the imperfections, I welcome them when they emerge. As in nature, you cannot control everything and it is impossible to authentically create such a beautiful imperfection.

Though I never know the scene my paintings tajke me to, so many resemble my travels. And others seem like a place I know but can't remember ever going to. Maybe they are in my memories from a book or a film. The rolling countryside hills could be my hometown or The Shire. The forests could be from a childhood fairytale or a hike last week. This specific series, with its dense forests, or open valleys gives me a sense of grounding and history. As if it is the hills of my ancestors. 

My works inspired by Still Life painting is a reference to my traditional training and a nod to the rebellious process I now embrace. Without a reference, the details appear abstract and sometimes question the correct lighting and shape of the natural form. Like a memory, some parts are accurate and some embellished or pieced together in your mind to make sense of it. What comes at the end feels familiar and symbolic of the ever-classic subject of still life, but with a twist.

My background has a heavy focus on representational art, as that was my upbringing when I trained to paint. Creating portraits in watercolor allows me to let my education show the fruits of my labor while also challenging me. While I am energized by the way I can make a piece of art have a soul and a life, I'm also constantly challenged by the unforgiving medium of watercolor, making the end result that much more rewarding. Representational watercolor is a meditative and comforting process for me, like watching a beloved movie I've seen ten times. I know the end result and it is a joy getting to the climax, when the image comes alive on the paper. I create these pieces under the alias "Soleil Fine Art", as my name is more attached to my Romantic Modern series in oils. I find the balance between the two styles fulfills my needs as an artist. When I am feeling spontaneous and creative, I lean for my oil work and when I am reflective and want grounding, I lean to my watercolors.