Maine + Monhegan
Maine's commercial fishing, the sea and egalitarian values have inspired my work for 25 years-the past 13 years on Monhegan Island. While "on island" I paint the rocks and sea in the open air, still life and iconic images from the island, and research the historical maritime resources of the Monhegan Museum. Images from my trips to Maine are used as source material for studio work-paintings, monotypes and monoprints. Carl Little selected one of my Monhegan watercolors for his latest book, Paintings of Maine, Down East Books.

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Fishing + Figures
My late father was a commercial tuna fisherman. I grew in up California around boats, fishing and the sea, and I worked on a commercial fishing boat during my early 20s. A family photographic album inspired me to explore this subject, fishing and figures. The series, Sanger Fra Mor (Songs from Mother), is autobiographical as well as a comment on the state of commercial fishing today.


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Landscape
As a first generation Norwegian American, I feel a strong connection to landscape, a long-standing Nordic subject. My interest in the environment, ecology and the persistence of landscape in the American painting tradition led me to the rugged coastline of Maine in and around Acadia National Park, and to Monhegan Island, Maine, where I have worked since the 1980's. In winter 1999, while an artist-in-residence at Weir Farm, I began to explore the woodlands as a complement to my interest in the seacoast.

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Seascape
As a young man in southern California, one day I went to the seacoast to paint. On site, I struggled. Nothing remained still, and everything kept changing: the light changed, the rocks changed, the sea changed as the tide and the waves rolled in and out. It was like trying to paint the wind. That experience stayed with me. Years later, on a trip to Maine, I decided to revisit the challenge. I have been painting the seacoast of Maine ever since.

 
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Weir Farm
I am interested in working where other artists have worked.  Julian Alden Weir (1852-1919) was an American painter and one of the founders of the Ten American Painters. His working farm in Branchville, Connecticut is now a national historic site administered by the National Park Service.  I was an artist-in-residence at Weir Farm in 1999 and a visiting artist in 2001. During this period I painted the winter snow, erratic boulders among the trees, Weir Pond and the Blue Moon.

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