Thank you Faso.com for the ease of your technology service to tech flunky artists in getting a website up and functioning.  A bigger thank you to my wife, Sue who has created the website.  We have uploaded lots of paintings - oils and watercolors with current status information about where to find and BUY them.  

For those who haven't met me yet, here is an interview from a few years ago with The Artist's Road.  The great thing is, the questions I was asked are missing, but it doesn't matter.  You can have fun surmising what I was asked by my responses.  What a hoot!

The Artist’s Road

Artist's Responses:

1.   My parents loved the arts and took all of us to many exhibitions and concerts while we were growing up in the Philadelphia area.  Four of the six children in the family became professionally involved in the arts.  My sister holds an MFA and taught at The Alberta College of Art for many years. My youngest brother’s first career was in ballet.  My oldest brother has several PHds in comparative literature and rare books. 

2.  I began painting and drawing at an early age.  We had excellent art instruction in our schools.  By junior high school I was copying old master paintings and drawings as well as painting landscapes outdoors.  It just seemed like a natural thing to do.  I haven’t seriously considered doing anything else.

3.  A combination of the two- we had good formal training in our public schools and I worked both in and outside institutions.  My best experiences have been working with small like-minded groups of artists sharing techniques and aesthetic goals.  I’ve spent a good deal of time copying in museums both in this country and in Europe.  That remains an invaluable experience.

4.  I look at everything all the time.  I surround myself with art books, catalogs and magazines of contemporary work.  I visit the museums and galleries often and leaf through material daily.  I think it is very important to educate yourself and to keep yourself in the “zone” of pictoral representation.

5.  Simply being alive.  I want my work to reflect the human experience.

6.  During the winter months most of my work is indoors.  I do a great deal of figurative work and try to have the model in every day.  I also work on still lifes and get outside for the occasional snow scene.  Once spring arrives, I’m out doors all the time, painting the landscape and figure outdoors as much as possible.  I use the studio to touch up work and prepare paintings for exhibition.

7.  Everywhere!!! Actually, we live in a beautiful area in upstate New York.  We chose it because of its paintable beauty.  There is a gorgeous landscape with a great deal of beautiful 19^th century architecture.  It also has four seasons, each with its own unique character.  That aside, I adore painting in Europe.  I’ve spent fair amount of time in France and Italy.  The way the landscape and architecture harmonize there is magical.  I also spend a good deal of time painting on North Haven island, 12 miles off the coast of Maine where the Boston school impressionist painter Frank Benson summered next door to my wife’s family.

8.  Far too many to count, but here is one example.   I was painting in a small town in Italy.  I was on the back streets.  Girls were leaning out over the balconies.  Young men were parading by in the street. Someone was singing, and I said to myself, “My God – I’m in the middle of an operetta!” -  it was perfect.

9.  All of it.  I love starting of course, but really all the way through is exciting.  It’s really like a high wire act.  Painting directly means that every stroke is important.  You must never allow your attention to waiver.  Right up to the end you find yourself wondering, “Is this going to work out?”  I think that if you lost that excitement you’d have a hard time continuing to paint.

10.  I paint primarily in oils, but love watercolor as well.  I particularly like to travel with the watercolors, as you can do a painting anywhere at a moments notice.  I use both when painting either the figure or the landscape.  Most of the studio work is in oils.

11.  I usually have a dozen or more painting going on at any one time.  In part it’s because in painting outdoors, you may have several pieces going to account for the changing light during the day, various weather conditions and locations.  In the studio I may have several figure pieces going because of the availability of different models, and a still life in process as well.  I like the idea of returning fresh to a painting after each session and to find that an idea or solution from one painting applies to another.  In a sense, I like to think that I am just painting, and whatever I’m working on is the manifestation at that particular moment.

12.  I don’t know if “communicate” is the right word.  In some sense I don’t want to communicate anything.  I’m just painting and if someone sees the painting and responds to it, that is great.  Any communication would be just as dependent upon what the viewer brought to the exchange.  Given that, I suppose I would want the viewer to sense the joy of painting, and how much beauty exists in our actual world.  I do think that a surprisingly small part of the public is able to see or experience that beauty, and that is one of the reasons why art or painting has appeared to have lost some of its relevance today.

13.  Paint, paint, paint, paint, paint.  Just do it.  Work hard.  The rewards will begin to flow back to you soon enough.  Take great joy in what you do.