I was born in London Ontario and grew up in Edmonton Alberta, graduating in 1996 with a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Alberta. Since graduating I have traveled extensively taking in the diverse art and culture of places such as Iceland, Fiji, Hawaii, New Zealand, Australia, Germany, Paris, Amsterdam, London, Edinburgh, as well as Guatemala, Honduras, Belize and the Yucatan. I moved to Vancouver in 1998 and returned to Edmonton in December 2001. These truly unique opportunities to pursue my art while travelling have been exceptional, in that it has given me a lot of inspiration to bring to my painting.

While focusing on landscapes and street scenes, I endeavor to capture the essence of the light, time and place creating the feeling of mood, atmosphere and the illusion of space on canvas. Using color, warm and cool, line to draw elements of the composition, thick and thin areas of paint to create texture with expressive and painterly brush strokes finding an equivalent image that depicts my perception of the world in the form of a painting. The different qualities of light are an important aspect in my work. The mood and essence of the time and place are captured in the light. Some of my influences are the masters of painting such as Vermeer, Goya, Rembrant, the Impressionists, the Group of Seven, Boudin, Matisse and Cezanne. Their successful use of color, play with light, and painterly brush strokes in their creation of space mood and atmosphere has inspired my work.

Many of these works were painted en plein air, adding a very fresh and immediate quality. I blocked the color on as fast as possible over the entire canvas, and then define and bring out certain areas. However, many areas are left as they were first blocked on, fresh and loosely handled with lots of energy, and with flecks of pure pigment through out. Using color to capture the feeling of ethereal wonder in the rustling poplar leaves in the trees by the lake, and the lyrical rhythm in the branches of the pine boughs, as well as in the symmetry and rhythm of the buildings, windows and people in the street scene.

The trees, leaves and fields have a pattern and symmetry that is not quite regular and this is the beauty and my attraction to the landscape. However I also see a similar pattern and symmetry in the street scene. With the regularity of the buildings being broken up by the people and signs on the streets. In painting the landscape and street scene I endeavor to capture the rhythm and exquisite color that is found to make an equivalent image.