I live in Imperial Beach, CA which is the most southwesterly city in the USA. We relocated here about 8 years ago when we were looking for a place to buy a home and didn’t want to live away from the coast.
The sewage problem wasn’t as bad as it is today, and we used to go to the beach. Now we don’t really even go to the beach or put toes in the water because the water conditions are always unsafe.
However the wide open spaces near the coast around the estuary are very pretty, and there is always parking! We see a lot of birds in the estuary and these sightings have informed what I paint in my work.
Usually everything I feature is an animal I have seen or think I’ve seen, or maybe should have seen in a particular area. Since many species have been pushed out of their native habitats I like to paint them as it should be.
I use my own photos or professional photos since all I have is an iPhone, and my imagination, with some help from photoshop to make a composition.
I’ve never been interested in realism, so although I am copying photos, I try to make it look more impressionist, and this is a choice so that time feels fleeting. The species alive today may not be here in the next generation because of climate change. My paintings are my effort to record the time we are in right now.
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