I love realism, and I have cut my teeth on realistic studies pretty much since Kindergarten. My development as a serious oil painter began in college during a semester in Italy. I left Europe with a powerful fondness for Botticelli, Van Eyck, and the Renaissance realism of the 1500s. Later, I became aware of the Classical Realism movement in the United States, and I was particularly inspired by a portrait I saw of Duke University's Reynolds Price, painted by Will Wilson, a master realist in San Francisco. I have been delighted to have the opportunity to study with some gifted and accomplished realists, including Jeffrey Mims and Scott Burdick. While I treasure and respect realistic painting, I have also been drawn towards more abstract work. I love the natural landscape, especially water, and I have enjoyed discovering how my imagination can be more abstractly expressed in the reflections of lakes and pools. Instead of copying, I feel I am creating, free to interpret and imagine. What results is, as a friend said, a place you would like to visit, but that doesn't exist.