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I am in awe of the artist or painter that paints in the moment on site and captures the light and mood of a scene right there as it changes and shifts with time. Plein air painting is a skill that does not come to me as fluidly and naturally as I would want it to. The way I think and plan for my paintings are more in sync with the ways and methods of a Studio Artist. It has taken me many tries at trying my hand at Plein air painting to realize, and outwardly accept that I am indeed a studio painter. That does not mean I don't see the light. In fact most if not all of my inspiration for my paintings come from my own photography of the natural landscape. Living in a digital age, my iPhone is my ever-ready tool to capture the fleeting landscapes, light and scenery that come to me whether it is from my walks in my beautiful city of Santa Fe and its mystical and soulful infrastructure or hiking through the open spaces and big skies of my old state of Colorado  or my new home in New Mexico. My car rides, train rides and hikes through places we vacation; These are all the landscapes that touch me and beckon me to paint for you. I take great delight in capturing and recording the beauty I see throughout the common American Landscape, through the eyes of an artist behind the lens of a camera.. Each frame I take resonates with my feeling and love for beauty seen in the simplest scenes we otherwise might take for granted and leave behind, unnoticed and to be missed by our very eyes. My photography is a conduit to my mind's eye and my surrounding environment and natural landscape. 

My family bemoans hikes and walks and car rides with me. I prolong a journey with many stops and whiplashes to catch just another shot, just another view, just another angle of the same scene they pass by. I laugh inside each time I see them roll their eyes. But I know it's worth it when I have captured the feel, pattern and state of a scene that has caught my eye.

It is the patterns and juxtapositions of how the sunlight or moonlight play on surfaces as they cast their rich glow on a simple hillside, the mast of a boat or the rustling leaves of a tree. It is the movement and flow of water through grains of sand and river rock that echo the path of waves long past. It is the dance of nature with its elements and the footprints it leaves behind that inspire me to stop and take a series of snapshots to add to my visual pool of reference material to paint from. These snapshots become a more compromised and simplified record of a scene that in real time has depth, light, layers of soul and feeling. They become a tool of reference for me to paint and create the feelings and emotions I felt for you on canvas. They are simply a tool to recall the moment and sensation I sought to convey to you.

So I am wondering just what you think of some examples of my notes taken for painting for you?