Behind the Landscapes

I was born and raised in a small historic town on the coastal plains of North Carolina, a region rich with both agriculture and southern culture — we’re proud of our land and our traditions. While I have always rejoiced in the notion of wanderlust, my soul continues to rest in the heritage of this place and how it has shaped me.

Recently, I’ve been thinking a lot about my artistic style and how best to define it. To be honest, I’m still somewhat stumped about the particulars — nevertheless, I have been able to pinpoint a consistently freeing nature to my work. Whether it be through compositional movement, color, or brushstroke; in the process of creating it or in the way it comes across to the viewer — I seek freedom in my art.

To me, these fields and marshes and dirt roads in my Landscape series evoke a sense of both roots and wings — simultaneously a resting place and a wide open space, a place to begin and a place to return. It has been a true joy to paint these expanses and to do so while examining the correlation between that which grounds us and that which gives us what we need to take flight. Such freedom there is in flying...

 ~ AV