I paint from nature: complex, surprising and constantly changing. Monumental and intimate, it inspires me. When working, I constantly refer back to small paintings made outdoors in Maine. These panels are close-ups of vines, swaths of grass, and trees; trunks and canopies, edited to just a few elements. I paint these in layers of gesture: a fat, wet stroke of white, or dry meandering orange jumps.

In the late nineties, as the Big Dig was carving up the landscape around my studio in the Fort Point neighborhood of Boston, I began a series of paintings of machinery, holes, and cityscapes. The cranes inspired many of the later works in this series. On Sundays the unmanned cranes would blow in the wind, swinging around to within feet of my fifth-floor windows.

In recent studio paintings, by pushing lines and layers of color, I imitate how I paint outdoors. I develop various complex "natural" personalities. They become subjects where my inner world comes into play. I improvise a language born of plein-air: direct, humorous, surprising, but also complex and subtle. I hope to imbue these invented images with the vitality and life found in nature.