Early Influences

Major artistic influences.
I grew up surrounded by what I call stoic art. Still life paintings and Vermeer and Rembrandt prints.
Later, (possibly around the age of 12) I was introduced to the painting: The Gleaners. It felt different than the "stoic paintings" I was familiar with. It is a painting where the subject isn’t posed or set up to be painted. The painting captures an active moment in time and I realized that in contemporary art the painting may lose the subject matter completely and the activity becomes the painting.

Les Glaneuses (The Gleaners) by François Millet, 1857

At age 16, I was shown my fist Vincent Van Gogh painting: The Starry Night, I was blown away. The art teacher who showed it to me was comparing the similarity of the brush strokes between Van Gogh's painting and a small gouache painting of mine. The connection was immediate for me and I surged ahead studying similar artists. First, Van Gogh life and works, which lead me to the Impressionists and then Cezanne, Matisse and finally the Abstract Expressionists.
My interest in Abstract Expressionism was further fueled by my painting instructor and mentor Burton Dickerson.

I think it is important to look at what has inspired us and how as artists our experiences are rooted in images which translate into a myriad of colors, shapes and forms.

Burton Dickerson