American making the British art

November 2016... officially more than 23 years after I first came to the UK, to Scotland, in September 1993 at age 23. I've now lived in the UK longer than I ever lived in the USA.

But my accent will always give me away! Now a Brit, I'll never stop sounding American to my neighbours.

"Intertidal", painting of Yorkshire, 2013 (available from the studio)

A key phrase from my artist statement has always been: 

"I identify very strongly with the British tradition for landscape and seascape painting while still retaining a certain 'midwestern' eye for landscape with flat perspective and vast open spaces."

 Whatever the scene - sea, cliffs, geology - I still flatten the perspective to the horizon, still use fields of colour. Growing up in Chicago and then living out in Urbana/Champaign, vast expanses filled my view. Whether Lake Michigan or endless fields of corn, flatness was everywhere.

"Night Beyond the Ice", painting of Chicago's Lake Michigan, 2006

So while I call myself a British artist (I didn't do art until I moved to England) I suppose to those around me I'm still the American making British landscapes!

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