My "discovery" of the Sonoran Desert region, in the spring of 1985, marked a turning point in the evolution of my work, and a re-ordering of priorities toward a new expressive direction.
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Here I found an unique and exotic world, far removed from that of my native New England landscape; a world of startling contrasts and intimate scale. The almost sculptural quality, simplicity, and diversity of its forms, at once stimulated my imagination and a new sensitivity to formal and spacial relationships.
Upon returning to my studio, I began what was to become the Sonoran DesertWorks; exotic desert landscapes punctuated, then dominated, by saguaro and organpipe cacti.
In these works, I have endeavored to portray the Sonoran Desert in the way I first perceived it; as a place of mystery, of nature at its most eccentric, beckoning the viewer to enter and explore. Each painting is, for me, an extended meditation upon the idealized vision of a moment in time. Although firmly rooted in the reality of experience, these paintings do not deny an element of the imagination.
I often walk the desert for long periods, stopping now and again to observe certain details or interesting arrangements, but only rarely stopping to paint at any one location. Rather, I prefer to absorb changing impressions from a moving or shifting point of view, recording composite images which later crystallize into compositional ideas. This method allows me to re-arrange, to re-invent, to dream the landscape.
My Sonoran DesertWorks reject the concept of painting as a passive window on nature. Instead, they emphasize the deliberate investigation of the formal relationships between groupings of landscape elements. Each composition is a microcosm, centered and self-contained, existing within a controlled and manipulated space. Within this framework, each painting addresses some particular aspect of my Sonoran Desert experience.
