Brief History of Becoming an Artist

When I was eleven I liked to draw the characters from the Sunday funnies.

At thirteen I dreamed of traveling in a van, making pictures and writing.

My father told me to be a dentist.

In college I took my first art course. The instructor told me to quit because I had no talent. I believed him and stopped making art.

Stricken with a need to save the world, I changed my major to psychology.

In my forties, like awakening from a twenty year snooze, I seriously tried art again and found out that talent and desire are the same thing.

And here I am finally making pictures, living with my wonderful wife on Bainbridge Island, traveling in a blue van dubbed the 'paintmobile', playing music, and painting. How good can it get?

My paintings are mostly plein aire and/or alla prima, which simply means I paint them from life, often outdoors, in one go. I feel I am finding my 'voice' but still want to be more intuitive, spontaneous, colorful and abstract while remaining faithful to the subject.

I've studied with many inspiring people. In order of appearance: Stuart Moldrem, Daniel Greene, Ron Lukas, Sonny Apinchipong Yang, Wm. F. Reese, Del Gish, briefly at the school of art in Guangzhou, China, Xiaogong Zhu, Caroline Anderson, and Robert Moore (and I'm sure I'm forgetting at least one).

Notes to current artists and those wanting to be:
This is everything I know about making art:

For more information, click here to visit my web site.