I paint things that can be seen every day. I search for people, scenes and visual relationships that I like, empathize with, or at least am intrigued by. As a result, over the years I have begun to enjoy and look at a great variety of people and daily scenes.

It is my belief that for paintings to capture the thrill and wonder of life they need to be more than just realistic recordings but instead should exist as individual metaphors. My paintings are recreations of pastels I do directly on location. The pastels are thoroughly studied so that the resulting paintings are expressions and not just copies. I love color and search for colors that lie just beneath the surface. Thick oil paint conveys gesture and movement and creates an abstract painting that references the initial pastel but also elevates it to something, as Fairfield Porter would say "with a life of its own".

Hopefully, the viewer can enjoy my work enough to make the leap to understanding my visual and emotional experience and can make it their own.

- Tom Brady