The fundamental reason I feel compelled to create art is to communicate—as a young kid painting from photographs in National Geographic, I took up the brush to communicate my love of nature. Now as an adult artist, painting plein air or from photos I took in the wilderness, I paint for the same reason, inspired by both the architectural beauty of rocky mountain landscapes and the unique wildlife that inhabits the American West. Through the oil painting process, I start with thinner oil paint stains, working wet-in-wet, progressively laying in thicker passages of opaque oil paint until the painting takes on a life of its own, hopefully creating a work worthy of the subject. I aim to paint colorfully and impressionistically, somewhere between representation and abstraction, walking the edge of contemporary realism. I hope at the end of the painting process, I have a painting that is a synthesis of what I’ve observed in nature and my own response to it, creating a unique vision imbued with meaning that I want to share with others. I paint from photographs I have taken on my travels around the West aided by my memory and plein air studies whenever possible. My studio is currently in the beautiful Bitterroot Valley of Montana.

Email: info@laragallery.art