About Me
May 18th, 2008
What can I say about oil painting that has not already been said? It is incredible enough that I have been blessed with an amazing family but I also have the pleasure of creating art for a living and doing most of my work only 100 feet from my home. My five children are regular disruptions to my workday here in Alabama and I would not have it any other way. Even my yellow lab Buzby gets in on the act when no one else is around to praise him.
A desire to create art runs in the family. My oldest daughter loves photography, my middle daughter spends days at a time adding to her sketch book and my youngest son creates various devices of war with his lego’s. Well, maybe lego’s are not art but certainly the love to create is embedded in our genetic code.
The more traditional realism of the past has always been what has stirred my emotions and fostered the desire to become a better painter. Growing up in St. Louis Missouri I spent many hours roaming the halls of the St. Louis Art Museum wondering what the world of those great paintings were like and longing to portray life and light as well as those artist did. Continually viewing the great art of the past is what has pushed me to use as much time as possible in the pursuit of painting.
In the early 90’s I discovered the convenience of painting with pastels. They were quick to set up, quick to put away, and quick for getting from point A to point B in the painting process. Pastels are a fantastic place to start if you are just beginning to paint. I could come home from work, eat dinner and have a painting done before going to bed. Most of my paintings during these years were still life and I was fortunate enough to win ‘The Best of Show’ in the Southeastern Pastel Societies members show with one of these paintings.
In the late 90’s I began to do a form of painting that I developed out of the sheer frustration of always being surrounded by Alabama landscapes. If you have ever been to Alabama in the summer time you know EVERYTHING is green. In most vistas there is very little sky and a whole lot of plant species. So in a desire to replicate the more open landscapes that I viewed growing up in the Midwest, I simply began to paint from my head. These ‘treescapes’ have been the dominate focus of my work during the last 10 years though I still love to paint from life and have been doing much more of it as of late. Blogging my work each day, on which this blog is focused, has been the newest addition to our lives. I hope you enjoy!
Awards
Pastel Journal Top 100
(3rd place – still life category)
Best of Show, Alabama Pastel Society, Regional Show
Best of Show, Southeastern Pastel Society, Members Show
Best of Show, Winterhaven Artfest, FL
Best of Show, Alabama Pastel Society, Members Show
Best of Show, Eau Gallie Arts and Jazz Festival
Best of Show, Gainesville 18th Annual Downtown Art Festival
First Place, Painting, Mainsail, St. Petersburg FL
First Place, Painting, Artigras, Palm Beach Gardens, FL
Education
Culver Stockten College, Canton MO
Bryan College, Dayton TN
