My interest is painting realistically in oils. Oil paint gives me the versatility and control that I like. I feel it also connects me to the great painters and traditions of the past by using the materials and techniques that served them so well. I use charcoal and graphite in preparatory sketches and just for the pleasure of drawing.

I look for subjects that have what I call “emotional content.” I want to make paintings that give the viewers something to think about. I am particularly interested in painting figures and faces that suggest some aspect of the human condition. But I like to look for this emotional element in non-figurative subjects too. Sometimes I can get well into a painting before I realize it doesn’t have that elusive quality, and I abandon it.

For me, a successful painting is one the viewer can come back to again and again without tiring of it. It is a painting that embodies a question that is hard to put one’s finger on with an answer that is just out of reach.

Although I think of my style as realistic, it ranges from a somewhat impressionistic look to a fairly high level of realism. Once I get into a painting, the subject and the way I think about it seems to dictate how far I go toward detailed realism. But I never want to take it to a photographic level. I want the work to be convincing, but still painterly.
Finally, I want to create something that is enjoyable to look at—beautiful, in some sense. Because, after all is said and done, it is going to hang on the wall.