| Growing up in Texas, I always loved to draw, even as a boy. I also loved the puzzle solving and design aspects of architecture, as a result, I pursued an architectural education until my second year of college. At that time, I decided that presentation drawings and color work were what I really wanted to do so, I shifted into fine arts with the intention of becoming an architectural illustrator. I completed my BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago but, continued working in the architectural design field until 1999, when an opportunity came along to work full-time as an architectural illustrator. Working primarily in watercolor, I continued to do illustration work for the next 15 years. In the summer of 2014, I decided to give Plein Air painting a try as another outlet for my watercolor skills. After a few events, I was completely taken with whole Plein Air scene, as much, due to the many wonderful and talented people I met along the way as to the painting itself. I am now happily retired from architecture and working full-time as a plein air and studio artist.
With unlimited subject matter and constantly changing light and weather conditions, there is no studio like the outdoors. Mark Twain said that travel opens the mind, I find it also opens the eyes and is a great creative stimulant. Painting on site, with all its challenges, is really the only way to fully experience the beauty of light, color and form in the natural world. The human eye is far more discerning and preceptive than the camera. Painting is, for me, a process through which I connect to nature, people and myself. Having the ability to translate what I see in the everyday world into a visual image that is both a personal narrative and also can create an emotional response in another person is a wonderful thing andmy main reason to continue painting.
I have been working in watercolor for 40 something years and, to me, it is unlike any other media in its variety and flexibility of application. Watercolor, in and of itself, has the potential to bring brilliance to an image, learning how to allow that to happen has become a lifetime endeavor. |
