About

I am a landscape artist specializing mostly in urban landscapes, drawing inspiration and material from buildings and infrastructure in the Ottawa region. I am fascinated in particular by lanes and alleys that cut through blocks of houses and other buildings. They have so much character and potential. As a counterpoint to urban landscapes I often explore the many lakes and rivers that surround Ottawa. These rivers are the backbone of our history and provided the lines of communication that facilitated exploration and development of our region. They also provide an endless source of motifs and themes to compose a stunning painting.

I am a colourist. I use a form of colour field painting to achieve my artistic objectives. I combine traditional colour field painting with the tried and tested principles of traditional landscape painting to produce colourful and meaningful landscape paintings. Thus objects in the distance are cool and pale. Their intensity is reduced by the effects of areal distance and atmosphere. Objects in the foreground are warm, intense and saturated. I divide my landscapes into planes of colour that convey shape, form and substance.

The edges of buildings turn and recede into the middle ground and are offset by distant backgrounds. I use simultaneous adjacent complementary colours to achieve maximum effect.

I use the full range of powerful colours made up of strong and lasting minerals such as cobalt and cadmium. Thus the colour in my paintings will continue to be strong well into the future. The strength of the colours convey powerful emotions. Most of my paintings are produced outdoors ” en plain air” on site. I often paint with other artists in groups. When outdoors I often paint on small canvasses with great speed to capture the atmosphere and moment in time. I then transfer the images to larger canvasses in my studio located in Almonte Ontario.

I exhibit annually at the Cube Gallery in Ottawa with other artists in my landscape painting group. Our next show is scheduled for June of 2017 and will feature buildings and infrastructure located in Ottawa that predates Canadian Confederation. The show will be part of the celebrations planned for Canada’s 150 anniversary.