I am a self-taught oil painter based in Rockaway Beach, NY, drawn to the power, light, and motion of the Atlantic shoreline. My connection to painting began in Antwerp, where, as a child, I mixed oils for my nanny, and later grew deeper when I began painting as an Architecture student at SCI-Arc in Los Angeles in 1997.

This studio began during a period when a knee injury forced me to step back from physical activity. Each morning, as I walk “Dr. Love” (Oso, my dog), I turn toward the ocean just steps from my studio. This daily ritual shapes my work, which is not rooted in realism but in an expressive response to the sea’s luminous pulse, shifting colors, and quiet force.

I’m back to surfing now, and my paintings aim to translate the feelings, sounds, and smells of marine life as I challenge myself in this vast expanse: The white spray, the endless motion underfoot, the shifting mosaic of light sensations felt only while paddling out and riding the wave. Through this work, I try to stay grounded, humble, grateful for health, and connected to the ecosystegm that sustains us.

In addition to my art, I am a full-time, licensed architect in New York, designing custom homes and residential projects. The forms, rhythms, and ideas I explore in painting flow naturally into my architectural practice, each discipline strengthening the other.

A well-designed home, like light penetrating the crest of a wave, should hold and release light in a way that feels natural and alive. The ease we feel in ocean light is the same quiet shift that occurs when we step into a sunlit open interior. That, to me, is architecture at its essence; timeless, elemental, and as enduring as the sea.

“A man may stand there and put all America behind him.” — Henry David Thoreau / American Naturalist and poet

www.ebarc.com