For over the past 40 years my paintings have been concerned with the relation of figures, painted directly from life, to their environment. I never paint from photographs. I feel that the use of photography would dilute the intensity of feeling that I am seeking. I have always worked with a limited palette, usually about 8 colors. Starting in 1990, I decided to limit my palette to four colors, a dark red, a blue, a yellow and white. Before 1995, all the people portrayed in my paintings were my students, my friends or members of my family, including my children, Francesca and Joshua. The environments were in or around my home in Trenton or the grounds of the school where I teach. Starting in 1995, I altered my direction. I painted other people, many of whom are artists, architects, teachers and religious leaders, sometimes with their families, in their environment, either their home, studio or house of worship. My admiration for the plays of Ibsen has led me to do paintings of productions of his plays and of the leading American translator of Ibsen, Rolf Fjelde, and his family. Every summer since 2008 I have rented a home at Cape Cod and have been doing paintings of artists and families related to the Cape. In the past, I did preparatory drawings and painting studies for each painting. Since 2009 I have abandoned that practice and start painting without any preparatory drawings or color sketches.