(pastel stick scratching) - Being an artist felt like a pipe dream.

(pastel stick continues scratching) (wrapper rustling) And maybe that's why it took me a little longer to believe it could be real.

But right around 35 to 40, it became very clear to me that I needed to do this and I needed to do it seriously.

(pastel stick scratching) So it was just an impetus that I had to try it for real.

(pastel stick scratching) (calm piano music) Soft pastels are actually a very ancient medium, and they were very popular at different times in history.

Being sticks of pure pigment has some disadvantages, but it has some real advantages.

One is, because it is nearly pure pigment and it's not wetted like watercolors or oils or acrylics are, the light actually refracts off all the little molecular particles.

Because of that refraction, the colors in pastel are very, very brilliant.

(subtle playful music) (subtle playful music continues) (subtle playful music continues) Today, I'm working on a large, a 30 by 30 version of some images I took.

I had the good fortune to be at Monet's water lily garden in Giverny.

And this image you're seeing here is actually a composite of a couple of photographs of this.

It was fall, and this violet-colored bush was leaning over the lily pond.

And I'm trying to create almost a free-flowing version of it.

Again, not trying to be literal.

I'm hoping to let the colors dance and move about each other in a loose way and yet still be a little bit referential.

So, why don't I start with those?

I work from photographs, and then I will work with those images, sometimes verbatim.

Other times, I will manipulate a little bit.

This happens to be from Alaska.

And while I loved this business up here of these dead, or almost dead trees, it was the abstract formation of these fallen limbs and logs and moss that really interested me, so this is how I cropped the image to paint it.

And so, many times, when I show people my painting, they will tell me I'm an abstract painter.

And I insist that I'm not.

(laughs) I'm just finding these things in nature and trying to enhance our awareness.

This is the final piece.

One of the things I like to do in these close-focused images is I get rid of the horizon, and you lose scale.

You lose context and scale, and so this could be from a satellite image for all you know, looking down on Earth, or it could be microscopic.

I like that freedom for both me and the viewer to move around in the actual colors and forms.

(gentle piano music) When I first started, I was pretty clueless about how to go about the actual day-to-day practicality of being an artist, so the first thing I could think of to do was to join a group.

And back then, Wisconsin Visual Artist was called Wisconsin Painters and Sculptors, so I joined them.

(cloth rustling) And I learned about how to enter shows so that you get your work seen.

(spray spritzing) I got some advice about approaching galleries.

(staple gun clacks) And I was lucky enough to get into JK Art House.

(gentle piano music continues) (gentle piano music continues) I wanna capture something of the deepest truth or reality I can grab because the look of nature and the colors and everything shifts and changes.

It's very ephemeral.

So, I can sit at the edge of a river or a creek, and I can go off into those cosmic places.

These kinds of experiences in nature are my way of making sense of the world, my way of making meaning, my way of understanding who I am, what I'm supposed to do, what this is all about.

And so, in some ways, I'm asking all the big questions, but I'm not arrogant enough to think I have the answers.

When I see a certain arrangement of color or a certain pattern, it moves me.

And I wanna capture some of that and share it.

(gentle piano music continues) (gentle piano music fading) - [Narrator] Thanks for watching "The Arts Page."

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