Throughout my painting life, I have been doing still lives in various styles and formats. Now that I'm teaching a class in it, I have been doing a lot more of them. To me they are the perfect way to explore stylistic possibilities, as well as to hone techniques of portraying, color, space and form.

So many artists have used the humble still life over the years to develop their art, the lineup includes the greatest of the greats. The question always arises when setting up the objects; what to include and what to leave out. Still lives don't have to be pretty in the sense of the objects being intrinsically beautiful. like flowers. In fact, they can include some really ugly but interesting things. Whatever interests the artist. As with most painting, it's not about the objects, but more about the artist.