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Orpheus and Euridice, 36×36, Oil on Canvas

From childhood, I’ve felt impelled to illustrate stories and characters from my imagination, and as an adult, I still do.  I naturally became a figurative artist for that reason.  I continue to be inspired by literature and history, myth, my Finnish heritage and love of dogs and horses.

I’m increasingly drawn to landscapes, however.  I most admire naturalistic realists like Charles-Francois Daubigny of the Barbizon School in 19th Century France; Alfred Munnings, who traveled the English countryside, painting horse fairs, hunts and circuses; and Isaak Levitan, who painted the landscapes of his native Russia.  I love the way those artists painted, the landscapes so much more real than those of the Impressionists.  The rural world they lived in doesn’t exist anymore, like as it may be to southwestern Wisconsin, where I live.  Here we have paved roads, No Trespassing signs and automobiles whizzing by.  I know half of what draws me is their pre-mechanized world, where lives were spent largely outdoors.  I will be looking for natural scenes to paint in future, scenes that evoke a less digitized, scheduled, indoor life.