Springtime is my favorite time to adventure into Upper Park and feel what it is like to practice as a Plein Air Oil Painter. I love using surreal colors to capture the beautiful topography of our local landscape.
This painting captures the magical feeling of gazing up at a night flight of snow geese. I chose to leave their bodies open, as if their flight is as timeless as the infinite stars above us.
The metamorphosis of the butterfly reminds us of the great capability for beautiful transformation in all beings and nature. My main attraction to painting these massive butterflies is color; when looking closely at their natural designs, you can see imperfection in their perfect symmetry but also exquisite color compositions. The bare eye can never see the complexity of the colors they possess, yet it is fascinating to attempt to decipher as a painter. I chose to investigate only local butterflies of Chico, learning that many of them live in very tiny ranges of space and in proximity to specific plants.
My art starts with the amazement of our natural world; specifically the plants, creatures and trees that grow around us. Most of my work has been painted while sitting in awe and joy, mostly in my homelands of Chico, but also in the very different environment of coastal Brazil. My art is a process of connecting with the beauty, patience and magic of what is inside and all around me.
I am sometimes attracted to the local beauty of my northern California-sweet home and other times enthralled in the different worlds paint can create: I can shift my art to the literal and then back to the abstract.