Although I paint landscapes from my imagination, they are almost always based upon things I have seen. My ideas for my paintings come from photos I have taken, from things I remember seeing and from looking at the work of other artists. I do preliminary sketches to figure out what elements I want in my painting and how I want to organize the composition.

This sketch is my starting point, but it often gets drastically altered once I start painting. More often than not, I start with a more complicated composition and simplify as I go along.

Some people have described my work as realist; others have mistaken my paintings for photographs. I think both assumptions are partially due to the fact that my surfaces, which are smooth and glossy, sometimes resemble the surface of a photograph. I do sometimes use photographs to help me figure out how to depict certain textures or value relationships. However, I prefer to think of my painting as representational. I am not particularly interested in painting landscapes plein-air and remaining true to the visual effects of a place, nor do I try to mimic the content of a photograph. Rather, I use landscape elements to attain a psychological resonance. It is not so important to me what exists in the painting as the kind of atmosphere that pervades it. When I am actually painting, I respond much more to color, composition and the properties of the paint itself rather than to subject matter. In this way, my working method is as closely aligned with abstraction as with realism.

I paint on braced MDF (medium density fiberboard) panels. For some reason I have never liked the texture and bounce of stretched canvas. I much prefer putting my brush to a hard, smooth surface. I prime the panels with acrylic gesso, applying multiple layers and sanding between every second or third coat. The result is a polished working surface with no visible brushstrokes.

I have two different processes of working, depending on what kind of image I am developing. For the waterscape paintings, I want to prolong the drying time of the oil paint because it takes me a while to form the waves into a satisfactory pattern. First I mix all the colors I want to use, then add a drop or two of oil of cloves to each batch of paint. This allows the paint to remain workable on the palette for several days. James Valerio, the realist painter and one of my professors at Northwestern, suggested this method to me. (Once several years ago, in my newfound enthusiasm, I mixed entirely too much oil of cloves in my paint. The painting took 3 months to dry. Oops!) I use a 1:1 mixture of cold pressed linseed oil and Turpenoid as my medium.

It usually takes me 2–4 days to complete this first stage of a waterscape painting, depending on the size of the panel. I will start one only if I know I have consecutive days to work on it. It takes about 10 days for the painting to feel dry to the touch. I usually wait for a couple of weeks after that, and then apply layers of glaze to make adjustments in the color and atmosphere. At this stage I use pure Liquin as my medium.

I develop all my other paintings in a very different way. I generally use Liquin as my medium because I build my images using layers of glazes. Since Liquin dries overnight, I have no trouble working on the same painting the next day. I adjust my medium according to weather conditions. In the summer, when it is hot and humid, the Liquin tends to set within 15–20 minutes, making the surface of the painting sticky and unworkable. I then use my 1:1 mixture of cold pressed linseed oil and Turpenoid with a few dollops of Liquin added to increase my working time.

I start off with an oil sketch on the panel, and add glazes to it every day. In the beginning stages, I start each painting session by lightly sanding my work, using 600 grit sandpaper, to keep the surface as smooth as possible. As the painting progresses and the work obtains more finish, I stop sanding so as not scratch away the detail. I complete the painting in anywhere from about 5 sessions of painting (for the smallest work) to about 30 sessions.