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Hello. I'm glad you're here! In case we've just
met, please allow me to introduce myself:
I hold a B.A. degree in Graphic Design and have over 300 commissioned portraits and varied-media throughout the United States and Europe. Though I've worked in many mediums (acrylics, oil, marker, colored pencil, conte, charcoal, ink, pencil and computer) and on numerous backgrounds (canvas, board, wood, silk, glass, ceramic, bamboo and many different papers). I actually prefer acrylics with their crisp lines, ease of clean-up and fast drying time. However this last attribute aggravates some. It suits me just fine because I work so quickly. I've ruined a lot fewer brushes with soap and water than with oil. (...still lose a few every now and then, dang it!)
Sanitas
Most of my portrait work has been in oil. It's toxicity rep. notwithstanding, oil will always have a special place in my heart; the scent of turpentine and linseed oil taking me back to the shadowy days of my beginning. Barely a teen, there in the basement of my home I spent untold hours laboring over project after project, experimenting with paints, colors and types of brushes, and learning first-hand about the importance of good maintenance when it came to bristles. There were so many other important rules, such as not "muddying" the colors by double dipping, no matter how close you think the color you need might be to the last one you used. (sigh) Those were the days. Hey, I wonder how many of you out there actually started, as I did, using house paints on the backs of Sanitas (textured wallpaper), because your father was an interior decorator!!?--That many of you, eh? Isn't it great? I still have one of those, though despite our best efforts, it's now in shreds from years of wear and tear. (sigh.) Wow.
My first effort in Sanitas was of a large cockatoo. Talk about raw color! He was brilliant. But I oughta get an A for effort; its hard to get deep red with just a baby-bedroom pink enamel! I tried that for a while--the house paint road-- then progressed to real honest-to-goodness oils, I mean Artist's oils, like yellow cadmium light and alizarin crimson. What a trip!
It just sort of naturally evolved that I preferred to paint with just the three primary colors and a white and a black. I got into that habit, mixing all my own colors from the basic shades I liked best. (I mean, come on, it was a huge step up from Sherman William's!) I never understood why people got into the "burnt sienna's" and the "pythalio green's" and didn't want to know. Self taught, I just thought it was a weakness, a crutch that people would use the colors others deemed properly mixed. I'm sure many Art teachers will disagree with me on that one, but what the hell. Art is like politics. Good, bad or ugly, along with Sanatra I did it my way.
OK. So now I'd progressed (hey, you clicked on the "About the Artist" page) from early Triassic to the Jurassic era. At this point I even burned my own charcoal. Actually that came about when my sister found some dubious pictures I had "acquired", was in the process of telling my mother about them, and which I suddenly felt it prudent to roast. Hence the starting of a small fire in the downstairs fireplace and a fast explanation (ever the quick thinker: "What's that smoke down there!??!" "I'm making charcoal!") I "made" my own charcoal from that point on. It was great. Well, to tell the truth, I never really used charcoal to outline my portraits. It was just those darned pictures. I also made some wine down there from an old recipe I came across in my mother's cookbook. I connected some straws with candle wax to make air tubes and...well, that's a whole other story. It was great. (sigh.)
I painted the "Boy" down there...under wraps. I took to rather hiding out when I painted, as many of you other Artist's may appreciate. It seems that everyone, even those well-meaning, nurturing loved ones, is a critic . I mean before-it's-even-halfway-finished critics! Like "Isn't his nose a little long;" "Isn't his eye color a little off;" "You know, you shouldn't use that stroke there..." ARGHHHHH! Enough already. You hang paper, you teach shop, you bake cookies. Leave me alone. Haven't you ever heard of a young, easily bruised ego? Age 13 is rough enough. Let me get through puberty and then we'll talk. Actually we won't. (sigh.) Bless their little pea-picking hearts, guess the world just thinks we Artist types need that attentive vigil over our shoulders. Know-whut-I-mean,Vern? I hid out in my downstairs Art Room/Laboratory from that point on and covered my work till it was done.
Cretaceous Period
Animals.
I soon discovered that a lot of people dearly loved their pets and would pay to have them immortalized on canvas. It was with extreme pleasure that I created many a portrait of pets of all sorts, both living and deceased and took immense satisfaction in seeing the clients' happiness at their unveilings. This era however, while satisfying, could not rival that of the next: the commissioning of portraits of children. At age 15, working through a pediatric office, I began the exacting task of reproducing translucent, baby-soft cheeks and dewy eyelashes, drool-moistened lips and toothless smiles.
School
Correspondence school, that is...Swimming pools...movie stars... Wait, that's the Beverly Hillbillies, isn't it? Correspondence school is something entirely different. No swimming pools, no movie stars for me. At least not from my Correspondence school. In all fairness, I didn't keep at it for very long. Guess I saw the writing on the wall...pardon the pun....
Life
Life sort of went on and took me with it for a number of years, while I continued to love Art and do it. (Art, that is; well that too...) I kept painting and selling and painting and painting and painting. I guess you know why I mention the "painting" part so many times as opposed to the actual "selling" part. (sigh.) Ever hear the term "starving Artist"? (Nahhhh! 'Course not!) Anyone who sees those duplicated (sometimes really beautiful) paintings in office buildings and in department stores that "look-like-someone-actually-painted-them-but-surely-someone-couldn't-have-for-as-cheap-they-are" should know, yes someone painted them and no, they didn't get paid much very much. In fact, so many really good artists get taken advantage of by these mills that it should be a crime. But, hey, complain and they just ship the work to Mexico. Which they do anyway. (sigh.)
Complaining? Not me!!
Real School
Finally. REAL school. Not that correspondence schools can't teach you if you've a mind to, it's just that, well, finally, REAL school. I studied everything and anything that resembled Art and fielded the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune to muddle through. I loved every grueling minute of it. From the rage against the machine, "I'll make you do your six-month final term project over at the last minute so you'll miss the big wig judge because I don't like the shade of the walls of your model and I really, really don't like you" to the "you are the most BRILLIANT student I've ever had the pleasure to have taught." The gamut is wide. If you can, go to school, what a trip. I studied photography, computers, Art History, Theater, well, you get the picture. I ate it up with a freaking spoon. At quarterly reviews, when all was done that could be done to present our projects and the gauntlet had fallen, we'd get together to shudder over a beer at the local hangout and let the dust settle around us. It was great. Go to school if you possibly can. You never know what you can do until the pressures and demands hit and you pull it off! Eighteen projects in one weekend (no exaggeration)--No Problem!
Life After School
I've been commissioned for many, many portraits since, including those of houses. Yes, houses. Not your ordinary houses, mind you, but HOUSES. Closer to mansions. People are also very interested in having their beautiful houses immortalized. Guess in that you could say I was following in my father's footsteps. Hmmmm. Never really thought of it that way before. He painted houses, I painted houses. Mine were on canvas, his were not. If you are interested in having yours immortalized, please let me know.
Wonder if the Louvre would like a portrait of the Louvre? Now, hey, that's a novel idee. I'll contact the French Government right away.
Web Site Design
I really enjoy producing Web Sites. If you need to have one produced, please let me know. Easy enough. If you'd like pricing for Web Site production, I'd love to show you. Click here.
| Commission the Artist | Web Page Design |
