NORTHERN CALIFORNIA COLORIST

My Journey Through Light and Color

 

At 22, I made a promise to live boldly, to follow what set my soul alight. This decision was born from loss, as my mother’s passing forced me to reconsider everything. I left behind the stability of a day job and stepped into the unknown, immersing myself fully in the world of painting.

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More than three decades later, that promise still guides me. My work is rooted in the principles of the Hawthorne-Hensche method, a philosophy that reshaped not only my approach to painting but also how I experience the world itself. Some call it the Color Visualist Movement, others the New American Impressionism—for me, it is a way of seeing, a practice of perceiving light not as an effect but as the very essence of form.

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To me, painting is not about capturing objects—it is about interpreting the interplay of light and color and honoring nature's fleeting moods. Each color spot next to another is a meditation, an attempt to distill the world’s transience into something luminous and lasting.

 

The Mentors Who Shaped My Path

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My journey has been illuminated by extraordinary teachers. For over 25 years, Camille Przewodek was both my mentor and my studio-mate, a constant source of insight and camaraderie. From John Ebersberger and Cedric and Joanette Egeli—students of Henry Hensche—I inherited the discipline of learning to see rather than merely depict.

 

The late Joseph Mendez, a student of Sergei Bongart’s Russian school, expanded my understanding of mood and atmosphere. Peggi Kroll-Roberts and Ray Roberts have been invaluable artistic kindred spirits since 2003. These mentors instilled in me a reverence for color not as decoration but as a structural force—a language through which nature speaks.

 

The Practice of Plein Air

 

Painting en plein air is where I feel most at home. It is both an act of surrender and a test of presence—there are no shortcuts, no revisions, only the raw, unfiltered dialogue between the painter and the world. The changing light demands humility, patience, and attentiveness. Each brushstroke becomes a response, a love letter to the land’s shifting rhythms.

 

Teaching as an Act of Seeing

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Over the years, teaching has become an extension of my work. Just as my mentors guided me, I strive to pass along the art of seeing—not just painting technique, but the ability to perceive the world through light and color with deeper awareness. The Colorist tradition, as taught by Hawthorne, Hensche, and Bongart, offers not just a method of painting but a way of being—one that cultivates curiosity, presence, and a lifelong pursuit of beauty.

 

A Legacy of Light

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To paint is to remain a student of light, to learn again and again how to see. My work is both a continuation and an evolution of my inherited traditions. I honor the past while seeking new ways to express the poetry of color and perception.​

 

As long as light moves across this world, I will chase it with my brush, striving to capture its fleeting brilliance—one stroke, one moment, one canvas at a time.