These are answers from an interview I did with The Artist's Magazine. It was called "In Bloom" and was about painting roses in particular.

1. 1. What do roses mean to you? Do you think of the rose as an emblem?
Do you consider the art historical or literary antecedents when you paint
roses?
My paintings of roses symbolize the brevity and transient nature of life. In
another respect they are portraits, each flower having an expression of
countenance, much like people. I think Henri Fantin-Latour’s paintings of roses,
and floral paintings in general, are absolutely incredible.
2. Please describe your process: preliminary drawing? Choice of surface?
Underpainting, etc.
The first step is sorting through the flowers in order to find the most beautiful
blossoms. They need to be slightly open, but not fully. Usually I like to take two
sittings to complete the painting, so if they are fully opened the first day, they
will be withering the second. I choose a background color based on the
color/values within the roses I have chosen and arrange my set-up. I then thinly
sketch directly on the canvas with a “dead” oil color. Something similar to the
shadow or background color value. This underpainting is a monochrome
version of the final painting intended fix the composition using a limited tonal
range. I consider this stage at least 50 percent liable for the success of the
painting. Choosing interesting shapes and creating a good design is my first
focus. From there I find the focal point and create the appropriate sense of
contrast for my lighting situation. After that I spend the rest of the time
designing the smaller shapes, like individual petals, stems, and leaves and
adjusting the mid-tones. As I continue working with these smaller shapes, I
incorporate more color and contrast in my painting mixtures.
3. Do you work from life and is the inevitable progress of time part of the
picture's meaning?
I always work from life when painting any type of flower. Roses inparticular
can change within a matter of hours and this makes it a very challenging theme
to paint. That is actually one of the things I find exciting about painting roses-their
limited life span. I feel this adds to the emotional impact of the painting.
While painting, I can not help but think, “Here you are Flower, at your
prime, full of life and beauty, and I am trying to capture your fleeting aesthetic
before its glory fades away.”
4. Can you describe the role of darkness in your work?
Wow, I feel like I could answer this question in so many ways. : ) I’ll take
“darkness’ to mean visually? I use the dark values - like shadows- in the
painting to establish the lights. I know that when the painting is finished, the

2. viewer will only be focused on the lighter areas of the composition. So
although I spend so much of my time designing and painting the shadows
and dark areas- my goal is to have the viewer look over them and focus on
the light areas. I often tell my students to go to museums and look in the
shadows, look at the background of paintings they love. Do not be
manipulated into looking only at what the artist wanted you to look at.
Study the areas that surround the focal points in order to learn how those
points were created.
5. Please finally tell me anything you'd like to.
I would love to do commissioned floral paintings. I think the trick is not to
be sachrine or overly sympathetic when painting them, then you are really
able to capture their essence. Sargent felt painting flowers was great practice
for painting portraits.