Virginia Woolf: "Fiction is like a spider's web, attached ever so lightly perphaps, but still attached to life at all four corners." (A Room of One's Own)

Of all my work, the traditionally painted oils are the most "connected to life at all four corners.”   When I started painting, it was of what I knew and loved.  I drew directly on the time I spent on the water near my home and studio experiencing the beaches, tributaries, harbors, open sea and forests of New England.  It often involved my children.

I painted exclusively at an easel, in oil, on canvas.  I consider these traditionally painted oils the foundation of all my work.  It was only after a disciplined approach to the study and practice of traditional oil landscapes and seascapes, figures and portraits, that I started experimenting with diluting oils and pouring, then heating encaustic and painting in that medium, then combining these mediums and methods on one canvas.  My artistic practice has evolved after many years of trial and plenty of error.  Here, I have included a few of my favorites painted in oil many years ago.