Artist Statement:
“Now I understand: It is not horses that I paint; I paint the way they make me feel.“
What gives my work its edge is my deep personal familiarity with the physical horse, and an expansive sense that the movement is bigger than what you see.
I combine a passion for the anatomical horse – having watched them obsessively over many years – with a love both of classic gestural drawing and the element of surprise.
There is more to a horse than just a “picture” of him; there is a mythology, a symbolism; an ancient connection we can trace. Horses express “big energy”, and that is what I love to paint.
I believe that no matter how far our culture moves beyond the speed of the horse, true horsepower lies in his ability to inspire. There is a physicality of the horse that inspires my work.
As an experienced athlete, I relate to his strength, his form, his competitive and focused nature. These elements inform my work with a unique connection. I feel the horse.
My process often moves me around large canvases placed on the floor; these open white spaces co-create with me.
With attention to the correct attitude of the horse I paint in quick, concentrated strokes, mixing mediums in freshly layered spontaneity.
My own movement is expressed into my work. Often a final series of wildly contained drips and splashes define each horse’s unique personality and conformation. Their place in the overall composition is revealed.
As my art matures I blend the persistent complexities of power and vulnerability. The horse’s unique ability to evoke universal personalities is a constant for me.
I feel that while I continue in the tradition of the symbolic equine in art, my Urban Equines break new ground in fresh treatments, bold, unexpected colors and mediums, and a contemporary clarity that speaks to a new generation of art collectors.
Elegant and sophisticated my works articulate a simplicity of what is beautiful, in a fluid style that is at home in both formal collections as well as the large-scale spaces of modern design.