Artist Statement:

I first came to painting through my love of plants and the landscape. While completing a horticulture certificate program at Longwood Gardens, I sidetracked into botanical illustration and ended up studying it for five years. This experience continues to shape the way I look at plants, the high level of detail in my work, and my inclination to focus on an individual subject. Painting is my way of exploring the huge variety of plant forms, colors, textures, and markings—all of the quirky characteristics that fascinate me.

Traveling in Europe during my teens and twenties instilled an early admiration for really old things, for materials that age well and have a solidity to them—old buildings, old furniture, old paintings. And of all the old paintings, the still lifes captivate me the most, especially those of the Spanish tradition, with its austerely beautiful depictions of the simplest fruits, vegetables, and dishes. Connecting to the past is important to me, and I find the small intimate worlds created in these old paintings to be so alluring.

I love the challenge of capturing atmosphere in paint, making a subject look like it exists in space and has weight and depth. It doesn’t come quickly, but I enjoy the slowness of it, taking time to really look at my subjects, sometimes revisiting the same ones over and over. I always aim for naturalness and simplicity in my still lifes. For the most part, these are up-close paintings, and they probably won’t grab you from across the room. I hope however that my work conveys the enormous pleasure I’ve found in looking at the natural world with curiosity and appreciation.