Biography
I attended colleges in Tacoma WA and also studied under the fine tutelage of:
- Bill Reese Oil Painters of America, O.P.A.
- Jerry Stitt, American Watercolor Society, A.W.S.
- Rex Brandt and Joan Irving, A.W.S., Charles Reed, National Academy of Fine Art
- Robert Wood, A.W.S.
- under Scholarship with the infamous Russian Artist and teacher, Sergei Bongart
I have been teaching for 30 years in the use of watercolor and oil and successfully ran a private art school in my studio in Redmond, Washington, for 25 years.
It has often been said that the instructor learns more about painting (or whatever it is they are teaching) than the students, so true.
I paint in the impressionist tradition, you will notice not every detail provided by nature is included in my artwork. This is intentional to leave room for the eye of the viewer to interpret each piece using their own imagination. That way, the viewer is invited to participate in the process visually. If everything in the painting is “boned out”, you may as well take a photograph.
The problem, the camera has no heart, no soul, no spirit, but just coldly reproduces the image. It has been my experience to take the photograph of whatever I am attracted to, develop the image, and then wonder why I took the picture in the first place. This is not to say the photograph is worthless, to the contrary, and can offer stimulation and information to augment the sketch for later painting in the studio.