"Painting and drawing take me on a journey of expression that I cannot achieve with words."
I was born in Massachusetts but I have lived and worked in Sunapee, NH for almost 30 years. Summer is often spent visiting Cape Cod in Bourne, MA. My art career began in Illustration and has since transitioned to fine art painting.
I like to work mainly in oil or pastel and in a realist style. Sketching small studies outdoors and collecting reference material for larger ideas to be done in studio is basically how I work when painting landscapes or wildlife. I do not consider myself a "plein air" painter in the purest sense of the term but I do appreciate the process and value of working from life. I have an area in my small studio for still life set-ups. I will use a model at times for portrait/figure work but also rely on my own photography. The animal or "pet" portraits I do are generally done from my client's photos. As far as favorite subjects go, I have so many and enjoy them all: landscapes, portrait and figure, still life, animals, birds, wildlife and things related to the natural environment. I love to draw and keep a sketchbook with me as often as possible. I enjoy painting anything that I'm truly inspired by and pay attention to the spark of emotion I get when a subject really moves me.
Interested in art since childhood, I studied Illustration in the 1970's at Massachusetts College of Art in Boston. Unfortunately, I was unfulfilled by their teaching and left school before graduating. I continued in the field of Illustration on my own doing greeting cards, business logos and local advertising until 2004 when I decided to just really learn to paint. This self-teaching endeavor was supplemented by taking classes and workshops or watching professionals paint as often as possible. It is something I still continue to do today. All of the artists listed here are amazing painters and excellent teachers and I am blessed to have studied with them:
Frances Weston Hoyt, John C. Traynor, Richard Schmid, Nancy Guzik, Dennis Sheehan, Clayton Beck lll, Diane Rath, Albert Handell, Robert Carsten, Gil Perry, Peter Granucci, David Gray and Juan Jr. Ramirez. I highly recommend them all and the list is ongoing!
Also via books, museums and mentors I have been influenced and encouraged by the following artists:
Rembrandt, Vermeer, Renoir, Degas, Monet, John Singer Sargent, Edward Boit, George Inness, Cecilia Beaux, Mary Cassatt, Winslow Homer, M.C. Escher, J.W.Waterhouse, Norman Rockwell, Beatrix Potter, Hilary Knight, Maxfield Parrish, Walter Launt Palmer, Edgar Payne and John F. Carlson.
Presently, I'm a member of: the High Street Painters in Brattleboro, VT, the Portrait Society Of America, the Pastel Society Of New Hampshire, the Pastel Painters Society of Cape Cod, the Library Arts Center in Newport, NH, AVA of Lebanon, NH, the Falmouth Art Guild in Falmouth, MA, and the Hudson Valley Art Association.
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Thanks for visiting!
