A Matter of Taste?



The Magpie by Claude Monet. Worn out or enduring?

Being a painter allows me to explore a life of introspection and discovery. My aim is to continually learn, sharpen my skills and deepen my understanding of what I want to convey through my work. I am interested in beauty, and my goal is to discover beauty and to share it, to encourage other people to care about the beauty of our natural and artisanal world, and to understand how precious and how fragile it is.

When I paint outside, I choose to paint the landscapes I love, mostly in California and in France. I am drawn to the rugged beauty of the coast and the mountains, and to the quality of illumination that exists in certain places and at certain times. I am looking for the shapes and colors that work together to tell a story or invoke a sensation.

When I wrestle with the challenge of creating something new or saying something profound, I am drawn back to the enduring appeal of the paintings of the French and California Impressionists. They were groundbreaking artists of their time, and now they are not. Still, many people are drawn to their paintings, which command astronomical prices and sold out museum shows. So are they old and worn out? Or did they create something timeless? I believe there is value in discovery and innovation, and there are plenty of contemporary artists whose work I admire who are pursuing beauty in new and different ways. I also believe that in 100 years we may not be so captivated by pickled sharks and rumpled bed sheets posing as art. But we may still be enchanted by the dance of light on a haystack, or the curl of shadow underneath a wave. And as long as there is magic to be found in the lightness of the world, there will be value, for me, in painting it.
  

Damien Hirst, The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living.
Natural history, or art history? Or just a pickled shark?