Fall Aspens, Eastern Sierra

Artist Statement I have a deep connection with Yosemite National Park that has stretched over 60 years. When I was 18, I jumped on a Greyhound bus that brought me from Los Angeles to my first job in the park, working at The Ahwahnee hotel. In those first years, I spent days off backpacking in the high Sierra with new friends, which ignited my love for the natural world. Yosemite and the Sierra Nevada have been my home ever since. Collectors have described my work as “expressionistic, colorful, and even whimsical,” but I choose not to identify with a single painting style. I primarily work “en plein air” – outside in the place I am painting – which inspires me to paint from my heart using a “fresh ala prima” (wet-into-wet) interpretation that is uniquely my own. As I feel the light, colors, and breezes of a place and hear moving water, birds singing, and wind through trees as I paint, my work becomes very spontaneous and connected to place. As I arrive at my selected location for the da