The inspiration for my paintings comes from the maritime environment, an environment I’ve known all my life. The colors, textures, and markings on working ships are endlessly varied and often starkly beautiful. These ships travel the world, and each port they visit, each dock they touch, each tug that works them, leaves its mark which inscribes the story of these ships on its skin. Rather than paint a ship from stem to stern, I focus in “close-up” on these markings. I manipulate color, perspective, composition and texture, and as a result, my paintings include realistic images that become abstract canvasses.