Artist Statement    I    Awards / Honors    I    Illustration

Most of my paintings are of rural Iowa and the farms that I grew up around. By taking a slightly elevated view of the land, I can better see the patterns of the fields, buildings and trees on the landscape. The hills in my paintings have a smooth aerodynamic curve to them, the trees are full, the grass is a carpet of green and the buildings stand straight and true.

The medium I use is acrylic on a gessoed masonite panel. I generally use an airbrush for over-all shading and a small brush for detailed areas. The combination of the two, helps bring out the detail and sense of distance. Some of these paintings took well over a hundred hours to complete, but I feel that the look and feel of the final piece makes it well worth the time I put into them. The prints I offer were either made from the original painting or were designed digitally on the computer.

The regionalist painters like Grant Wood and Thomas Hart Benton, have had a big influence in the look of my paintings. They captured the rural midwest in a way only someone from the midwest could achieve. Also Geogia O'Keeffe, she looked for someone to show her how to paint a landscape, she never found that person. She only found people that could show her how to paint their landscapes, not hers. Thankfully for all of us, she decided to paint them the best way, her way.