Summer Show, 2025

Animals have always been part of my daily life in rural Vermont, shaping how I observe and move through the landscape. I watch them from the porch or along wooded trails—birds returning to nest, deer grazing near the fields, bears foraging the old apple trees, coyotes calling through the night. Over time, they have become familiar presences, almost companions in the shared rhythm of this place. Their quiet coexistence with us continues to inspire me, especially in a world that feels increasingly removed from such simplicity.

In this series, I paint animals not as portraits but as distilled forms—suggestions of movement, alertness, and instinct. Through painting, scraping, sanding, and reworking layers, I seek a worn surface that blurs the line between representation and memory. A grouse crouched low, a crow at watch, songbirds in flight—each becomes a meditation on perception, gesture, and texture. Within this balance of control and chance, the paintings come alive.