I have always been fascinated and frustrated by the arts. I live in Colorado, and truly enjoy being outside. Plein air painting is a great passion of mine, and one that continually challenges me.
Drawing with charcoal is a love/hate relationship. I love the marks I can make with charcoal, but the ‘scritch’ that it produces makes my spine shiver. Big fat pieces of graphite work themselves smoothly over a piece of paper, but the sheen makes it hard for me to love shading. The list goes on. But the act of creation is something that has always spoken to my soul, even if anything I produce never goes anywhere. I have a very analytical mind, and sometimes it’s hard for me to reconcile that side of me and let go creatively.
I got into the arts through my passion for scale modeling. One day talking with several friends, I was commenting how challenged by color theory I felt using transparent paints with my airbrush. I could predict at the time fairly well what would happen when I’d layer 2 colors, but any more layers and it never went the direction I wanted to. My friend Rick suggested I get a watercolor kit, and practice layering. Watercolors are transparent, and should react similarly to transparent airbrush paints.
Well, I got the watercolor kit, but then needed something to try and paint. I’ve always liked flowers, and decided that the best thing to do would be to visit the local botanical gardens and try to recreate some of the flowers and plants there. I immediately discovered that not only are layering watercolors nothing at all like layering airbrush paints, but watercolor is hard. My hat is off to anyone who attempts watercolor painting, let alone anyone who is good at it. But I fell in love with trying to paint outside. I’d never had any formal art training, but was enjoying getting outside, and putting colors on paper. Some of those early attempts weren’t all bad, but what I lacked in skill I made up for in fun.
Eventually I met another artist at the botanic gardens, and he and I became fast friends. He started me on the path of oil painting, and for that I owe him a huge debt of gratitude. Oils are so much easier in that I have time to fix my mistakes, and being more opaque easier to understand layering and blending.
As I continued painting, I also needed to work on my drawing skills. To that end, I’ve taken up figure and still life drawing. I still haven’t taken any in person art classes, however I have completed a number of courses with New Masters Academy and other online providers. I’ve learned the most however by just getting outside and drawing or painting. Life is too short to not paint or draw something I enjoy, so I attempt things much more complex than my skills allow me to pull off. But as long as I’m outside and learning a new skill, I’m doing well.
My main passions with painting are still lifes, landscapes, and space art. I’m a journeyman member of the International Astronomical Artists Association, and have the goal to eventually become an accepted artist with this esteemed group. I enjoy figure drawing, and attend a meetup whenever I can. Every time I start to draw a figure I think of Richard Feynman in a darkened strip club trying to capture the motions of the dancers, and try to emulate not only his drawing abilities, but his zest for life.