soCurio | art is for everyone

My paintings play and work with the spaces created by the horizon or its absence, by the sky, the weather; the earth and its expanse, its curvature, its fecundity; the water, its movement, its colors; by light manifested in atmosphere; by the landscape’s presence, its fullness and its emptiness. I have been working on several series referring to wetlands, mudflats and grasses; to ponds, fields and trees. I use thin layers of oil on unstretched canvas and in oil or acrylics on paper. I also use watercolor, pastels, and the monotype process. I regularly draw from the figure which informs, but does not usually appear in, my paintings. Drawing has become more and more important in my process, as I have begun to use twigs and sticks to draw with and into paint. My work refers to the regional landscape and more universally to the way in which landscape can affect our emotional states and can lift us into a wider sense of being in the world. My use of the horizon as a structural element speaks to the role it plays in our sense of space. Though born in New York, much of my childhood was spent in Washington State which influenced my contemplative attachment to the landscape. Later schooling in California and graduate study in London introduced me to very different atmospheres and light. There, I developed a love of the English watercolorists of the 18th and 19th Centuries. After receiving a graduate degree in Sociology in the mid sixties, I studied painting at SFAI where I also taught in the Humanities dept. I continue to teach in an academic program while pursuing my endeavors as an artist. I have shown at various venues including Richmond Art Center, The Gallery at Villa Montalvo, Bedford Gallery, Pro Arts, Berkeley Art Center, Addison Windows Gallery, The Old Berkeley Courthouse, The Alameda Cnty. Superior Court, Berkeley Civic Center building, Gaia Arts Center. Oakland Museum Collectors Gallery, California Modern Gallery.