Animals are a part of my experience where I live and work in rural Vermont. My interactions with them are from a distance, as an observer standing on the porch or walking the trails, where animals of all kinds are part of the territory. I often hear them. I watch what they do, how they move, and how quickly they disappear.

My current painting project focuses on the idea of animals. Rather than attempt to render the subjects with accurate likenesses, I am interested in simplifying their shapes to convey the essence of their forms and innate behaviors: a deer browsing, grouse nestled on the ground, a bird singing, a crow anxiously looking about.

In the work I paint, scrape, paint, dissolve, sand, and repaint the canvases to create softened worn textures where the imagery is representative of something familiar while hovering between perception and vagueness. It is the intersection of opposites that I find interesting to approach in these paintings.

See below for details. More paintings will be presented as they are completed.