Swans + Sails

Swans + Sails is a celebration of the human spirit - its tranquility and vibrancy, stillness and energy, and facilities of quiet contemplation along with adventurous desire. It is a harkening to the timeless connection between man, creature and the sea.

This new body of work brings together two enduring symbols of grace and freedom: the elegant swan gliding across still waters and the classic sailing vessel harnessing the wind’s power. The collection combines both the swan and the sail as these two forms possess both a visual connection (white forms against blue water) and also a more metaphorical, poetic relationship.

There is both tension and harmony found within each piece, In the sailboat images, there is the tension of man harnessing the elements, and of textured, windy seas/skies backdropped behind areas of triumphant calm in the billowing sails. In the swan images, tension exists between the dignified and the common, the majestic and the mundane, as well as the broken brushwork of the water and the solidified swan. Though tension exists, there is unity in the artworks also - harmonious color rendered throughout, and visible mark-making to convey motion, elegance, fluidity, soaring, vibrancy and life as we experience it.

Each painting captures a moment where nature’s quiet beauty meets the adventure of exploration. Billowing sails, rippling currents, and the drift of God’s creatures or man’s vessels invite the viewer to pause and imagine the stories unfolding within each scene. Or perhaps the viewer will become awakened to such subtleties now in his everyday human experience as a partaker in God’s glorious creation.

With vibrant, impressionistic brushwork of the Post-Impressionists such as Vincent van Gogh, and a color palette reminiscent of American Impressionist painter William Merritt Chase or French Impressionist Alfred Sisley, Swans + Sails invites you to step into a world that feels both nostalgic and alive—a place where we all take the helm under the majesty of God’s creation and are in complete awe.

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Thank you for being a supporter of the arts and for enjoying my work.

What an honor that we as God’s created people get to respond to the works of God through the human experience.

Soli Deo Gloria.