UC San Diego

Solitary Nature is comprised of six moderately large-scale easel paintings, done in oil, on both canvas and wooden panels. In the paintings, I employ subtle modeling of form in combination with a painterly handling of the materials to evoke qualities of mystery and atmosphere. The figures that appear in the paintings are solitary, except for one instance in which two figures appear. Their states of subdued action or at other times passive inaction, suggest a narrative that runs through the body of work, though it is never spelled out or made clear. Themes that recur in these works include, suggestions of the sublime, the individual in the landscape, immersion in nature and the qualities of light at twilight. My approach to these paintings was informed by Romanticism, Kant and Burke's ideas about the Sublime, my travels in the deserts and forests of California, as well as the Hudson River school of landscape painters, and contemporary painters Peter Doig and Anselm Kiefer.