"Life as an artist is very rewarding, with the profession giving you much more than mere monetary reward in return for your time and creativity. I refer to my art as an itch I’ve got to scratch and there is such great satisfaction in reproducing and interpreting what I witness in nature.
Years ago, I went to art school to learn to draw and paint, yet after my formal education, I found the important thing was not to learn to draw, but to become aware of my surroundings…to learn how to visually understand my environment, which is the rural landscape in which I live.
To me, the landscape I paint is more than a pretty picture. It offers an awareness of what’s in front of us; it evokes a mood of feeling through lights and darks, it’s hues and textures. Viewing the landscape, different people take different things away with them, as no two people ever see alike. Each person having to fill in the blanks for themselves."
--Stephen Shoemaker, 1996
