A bit about myself . . .
I
grew up in the small, industrial Illinois River town of Pekin,
some ten miles south of Peoria. A high school newspaper writer/editor
and thespian, I was always interested in the arts and went on
to earn bachelor's and master's degrees from Northwestern University's
Medill School of Journalism in Evanston. I then spent 28 challenging
years in public relations and retired in 1994 at age 50 in order
to pursue a long delayed interest in writing fiction.
A novel, several plays and untold short stories later - none published,
unfortunately - I bought some canvasses and dug out an old and
unused box of oil paints and brushes at my summer home on Cape
Cod. There one July day in 1996 on the rear deck of my house I
painted my first picture from a sketch I'd made the previous afternoon
at Wellfleet's Boundbrook Beach. Although I really did it just
for something different to do, and although I'd subsequently paint
only three or four pictures a year over the next three years,
I was hooked nonetheless.
My problem was no good place for painting. Not until 1999 when
I moved full-time to Sanibel, a beautiful sanctuary island on
the southwest coast of Florida, was I able to dedicate studio
space in my home and to begin pursuing my painting in earnest.
Since then, I've produced some 100 works while still enjoying
a busy life of community involvement and recreation.
All my paintings are oil on canvass, and all are painted from
photographs that I have personally taken. I wouldn't have it any
other way since I believe that composition is such a critical
part of each painting. The exception: an occasional plein air
painting completed on site. It's a rare exception, however, because
I find working in my studio much more satisfying. The light doesn't
change on me, the bugs don't get stuck in the paint, the wind
doesn't blow the easel over, and people aren't constantly stopping
to look and kibbutz.
As a painter, I am totally self-taught, though inspired by the
work and writings of a number of Cape Cod impressionist painters
. While living on the West Coast of Florida, my work was featured
in numerous juried and unjuried shows at the Longboat Key Center
for the Arts, the Sanibel-Captiva Art League, Barrier Island Group
for the Arts on Sanibel, the Ft. Myers Beach Art Association,
Sts. Peter and Paul Catholic Church in Bradenton, and St. Isabel's
Catholic Church on Sanibel - my most memorable show because that's
where I made my first sale.
Now a resident of Ft. Lauderdale on Florida's east coast, I have
had paintings featured at the Bock Gallery in Plantation and the
Bonnet House Gift Shop, and I have had work accepted into a number
of juried exhibitions of the Broward Art Guild, the Cornell Museum
at Old School Square in Delray Beach, the Coral Springs Center
for the Arts and other organizations. I have participated with
20 paintings in a small, juried group show at the Schacknow Museum
of Fine Arts in Plantation, and my own one-person show at the
Tamarac Community Center in Tamarac, FL. A member of the Bonnet
House Fine Artists Guild, I have been accepted into the 2003 and
2004 Bonnet House Impressions Exhibits and regularly display my
work at their monthly Third-Sunday art shows and sales. I have
also recently received the honor of being juried into professional
exhibiting membership with the Artists Guild of the Boca Raton
Museum and exhibit frequently at their gallery in Boca Raton.
I continue to paint what I like most: bright impressions of
landscapes and buildings that touch a nerve and produce a spark
of pleasure or comfort. The selection I offer here represents
some of my favorite moments since taking up the brush - past summers
on Cape Cod, autumn days in the often surprisingly picturesque
New Jersey, life in "paradise" on Sanibel Island, travels
across the United States, and a brief sojourns in Ireland England
and Italy. For each painting, I try to share a bit of background
about what I saw before I started it.
