Those people who have followed my art for years know that I tend to favor painting animal subjects out of their natural environments and positioning them, to both visual and thematic effect, in non-objective or abstract environments. Only those who have followed my career since the very beginning know that before creating wholly fanciful environments for my subjects, I distinguished myself from other wildlife artists by painting my animals alongside evidence of human activity. My first painting to be assessed into the collection of the National Museum of Wildlife Art was a painting of barn swallows perched on gas pipes. I painted birds flying under freeway overpasses, among other examples. Only as my knowledge of art history expanded during my college education, did I trade in this very literal collision of the natural and unnatural, the wild, and the manmade for a more metaphorical contrast, explored by a juxtaposition of styles and artistic traditions.

As I now reach a pivotal transition point in my work, “After the Storm” represents, at least in its conceptual approach, a shift back towards how I might have painted decades ago. When I came across this spadefoot toad in our swimming pool after an especially violent monsoon storm, I was immediately inspired by the color palette and by the fascinating shadow of the toad and the ripples of its movement on the bottom of the pool. The inspiration demanded a very direct approach, so that’s how I proceeded, describing the scene as faithfully and unapologetically as I could. Of course, immediately after taking some reference photos, I rescued the toad from the pool and relocated him in the garden. The painting becomes a quiet statement about the collision of wildlife with the environments we have made, environments which, unfortunately, vary wildly from the advantageous to the inhospitable. With the pool only steps from my studio door, this source of inspiration is one I intend to explore further.