I made my first on location,
plein air, painting in 1973.
My influences then were the French
Impressionist, mostly Monet, Pissarro and Sisley. At the time
I was working full time and attending art classes at Chaffey
Community College in Southern California. I was born and raised
in Ontario California, about 35 miles east of Los Angeles.
By the summer of 1975 I decided
to become a full time painter. I quit my job, left school and
moved to Santa Cruz in Northern Ca. I always loved the northern
part of the state and wanted to get away from everything I knew
up to that point and start a fresh life as a painter. I think
I had about $5,000 dollars in my bank account. In my mind, enough
money to make a start at really exploring and trying to learn
how to paint. My work at the time was very rough but I had no
doubt that I would grow and survive.
After a couple of years I move
further north to Humboldt County and have remained here, with
a couple of adventures elsewhere, since 1977. Humboldt is where
my education as a painter really started. There were several
painters in the area whom I met through a life drawing group.
Three of them, Curtis Otto, James Moore and George Van Hook became
close friends as well as the three painters I learned so much
from for the next few years. We painted daily together and George
and I shared a studio for a couple of years. Working so closely
with artists beyond ones own level was such a great way to learn
to see
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In 1984 I met my wife, Terry.
She was working as a graphic deigner at the time we met but by
the time we were married in 1988 she began painting as a fine
artist full time. Terry has been another major infulence in my
development as an artist. To have a partner and companion on
a daily bases that sees in ways I don't, and paints her view
of life, opened my work and continues to do so. We also both
believe in painting from life, outdoors and in the studio. We
both paint a lot of still life and figure painting when not working
outdoors.
I paint small and large on location.
I've painted as large as 54x84 outdoors, but normally work 9x12
to 30x40. I may work one to fifteen or twenty sittings outdoors.
I have no set rules but work until I feel I've completed the
painting. Sometimes years later I will re-work a painting in
the studio when I feel it is not quite working. It is funny how
time can often change how we perceive our work.
I always look at as much art
as I can, historical and contemporary. I learn from all of it.
I will always keep painting and trying to grow as a painter.
I think that will never end.
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