Most of my life I have looked at paintings from past ages and admired them. In my work as a historian of premodern Europe, my concern has been the history of artisans and craftspeople—those who paint, draw, build, make things. In about 2012 I started drawing and then painting (using oil paints). I took many courses at the Washington Studio School in Washington, DC.  

Painting is a process so different from researching and writing (the other activity that I mainly do).  When I paint, I become completely absorbed in thinking about line, color, composition, how to create certain effects. I am interested in making images of objects and scenes that I see. I am not trying to duplicate them precisely, but to see and feel them at the same time. 

I am not interested in specializing. So, I paint still-lifes such as pears and pliers, hands and tools together, interior scenes with windows and often bookcases, landscapes with buildings, animals, and (occasionally) people, including self-portraits. 

For me, painting is a way of paying sharp attention to what I can see—glimmers of color, the direction and thickness of line, expression, placement of objects on the canvas, the subtleties of color and the relationship of one hue to another. 

I hope that you, who are looking at my paintings, will see some of these things too!