Starting this Monday, Mitchell Hill Gallery in Charleston is exhibiting a collection of my paintings, “Elegance of Native Soul." This gallery show has been a labor of love for the past couple of months and I am looking forward to finally sharing it with you.

The name “Elegance of Native Soul,” represents the places and things that I find in their simplicity to be elegant. Using colors and brushwork, I have translated these subjects that are mystical and magical to me onto the canvas.

As a child of the South, my personal history and the surroundings that I have grown up with are strong influences in this collection, as with most of my work. The places I know, such as the tobacco on the side of the road or the bottle trees standing guard outside of a farmhouse, can be elegant in their simplicity. The black water of the Edisto or the hydrangeas in the horizon reach out to the canvas.

The things that we collect as we travel to, and grow up in, places such as these begin to form a still life in our periphery that speaks to out heart and soul. The objects and settings that you view in this collection definitely speak to my southern soul.

Sometimes, it’s the simple things that become our “Elegance of Native Soul.”