'Sophia Alone'

24`x 36` oil on board

I paint stories. Stories that the beholder can find when they stare into the eyes of the painting. Of course each painting has a special meaning to me, but more importantly, I want to provide the viewer a provocotive look into the emotion of the human condition so they can create their own idea as to what the painting signifies.

Even in my still life paintings there is symbology if ones looks for it. Our complex emotions are one of the greatest myteries and are shared by each one of us, often complicating our lives. Animals share many of these feelings as well and that is what I try to paint into my portraits of them. Look for it and you will find it.

Some favourite quotes:

VanGogh..."I want to touch people with my art. I want them to say 'he feels deeply, he feels tenderly.'"

Leonardo Davinci ..."Where the spirit does not work with the hand there is no art"

Salvadore Dali..."Have no fear of perfection, you'll never reach it"

Cezanne... "A work of art which did not begin in emotion is not art"

Rembrant..."It is not the language of painters but the language of nature which one should listen to, the feeling for the things themselves, for reality, is more mportant than the feeling for pictures"