My interest in  en plein air  ("in the open air") work has been growing in the last several years, and whenever feasible, this is how I paint. I love the immediacy and freshness of paintings created on location, the beauty of visible brushstrokes, and enjoy the challenge of capturing a particular lighting effect on a subject and just "getting down" what I see before me. Whether I am on location or in the studio, my preferred method of painting is a wet-on-wet, alla prima ("all-at-one-go") style, and this approach adapts particularly well to plein air work. I  discovered the fun of  juried plein air competitions only a couple of years back, and have also enjoyed participating in these, despite the "marathon" quality  these events can assume.

This is my current work in the medium of watercolor. I love to paint in both media, watercolor and oils, and do not have a favorite. The medium I choose depends on what the subject is, what my mood is, and often what medium I have been painting in lately. It is hard to switch back and forth; the process of "building" the painting  (light to dark for watercolor vs. dark to light for oils) is directly opposed. Some subjects are made for watercolor--if they are atmospheric or very soft, if they have lots of white (I use the white of the paper), or even if the subject calls for very crisp edges.  I love the playful, spontaneous quality of watercolors--how the water,  paint, and paper conspire, sometimes almost without your input, to produce the painting.

This is my current work in oils, primarily studio work. My studio work is created mostly during the winter months when I cannot get outside to paint on location, but I like to keep the feel of it very similar to my plein air work. I paint in both oils and watercolors, but find oils more congenial for  working plein air. I love oils for their tactile quality and enjoy creating thin, almost transparent areas in contrast to  thick impasto passages where I can really put the paint down. I work in an alla prima ("all-at-one-go") style. I rarely work by glazing layers or paint, in either watercolor or oil, preferring to work wet-on-wet, and have learned to lay one loaded brushstroke down next to another to get the effect I want.