As an artist trying to discover how I was going to use my creativity to express myself, I discovered some Urban Landscape, Photo Realist painters that really moved me and had a profound impact on what type of artwork, in technique and subject matter I wanted to pursue. I can't explain why I was so effected, but I know that, for an artist, listening to your inner voice is always the right choice when coming up with ideas. I have found that using my own insticts and creating pieces that fullfilled my need to express myself have brought me the most success. This painting was done from a photo I shot in 1996 with a traditional manual camera. I found the composition to be very interesting, especially when giving the viewer only a cropped section of the image. Most of my paintings have a lot of detail and information. I believe that creating a painting like this requires skill but even more important, patience and dedication. You must be willing to sit with the piece for an extensive amount of time, which makes the completed painting so much more rewarding.
Over the years I have painted about 75-100 murals of all kinds. I love to do work on a large scale and mural painting usually provides the largest areas to paint. This piece featured to the right was done on my daughter's closet doors which are a great place for artwork because no matter how you arrange the room, the closet doors are always in view. It is a enchanted forest that was done using the 3 wall paint colors so it blends nicely in the room. I like painting murals because ther are certain things that do not have the same effect as work done on canvas.
This my home office/studio. I love working in this room because I am surrounded by all the things I love. I have developed a certain method of how I work involving; scented candles, flavored coffees, music and movies...I also have been using this fold-up fabric ottoman as a chair for the last 25 years. My process is pretty controlled so I do not require an apron or painting clothes, I usually only get paint on my hands from smearing it on the canvas or cleaning off my ruler. I also use a level and scotch tape to mask my lines. A lot of what I do now is somewhat automatic, everything I use is within my reach and on a few occasions I have sat there for over 6 hours without getting up. Sometime I get so focussed on trying to make something happen that I do not notice the time passing.