Crow Creek

STATEMENT
With unlimited subject matter and constantly changing light and weather conditions, there is no studio like the outdoors. Mark Twain said that travel opens the mind. I find that it also opens the eyes and is a great creative stimulant. Painting on site, with all its challenges, is really the only way to fully experience the beauty of light, color and form in the natural world. The human eye is far more discerning and preceptive than the camera. Painting is, for me, a process through which I connect to nature, people and myself. Having the ability to translate what I see in the everyday world into a visual image that is both a personal narrative and can also create an emotional response in another person is a wonderful thing and my main reason to continue painting.

BIOGRAPHY
I have been working in watercolor for 40 something years and, to me, there is no other medium so varied in its possibilities of application. Watercolor in itself has the potential to bring brilliance to an image; what keeps me interested is learning how to allow that happen.
I have always loved to draw, even as a boy. I also loved the puzzle solving and design aspects of architecture. As a result, I pursued an architectural education until my second year of college when I decided that presentation drawings and color work were really what I loved to do. I shifted into fine arts with the intention of becoming an architectural illustrator. I completed my BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and I continued working in the architectural field until 1999, at that time, I was able to begin my second career as a architectural illustrator. Working primarily in watercolor, I continued to do illustration work for the next 15 years.
In 2014 I decided to give Plein Air painting a try and was very quickly taken with whole Plein Air art event scene, as much, due to the many wonderful and talented people I met along the way as with the painting itself. I am now happily working full-time as a plein air and studio artist.
Education:
University of Texas, Architecture and Fine Art
School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Fine Art, Painting and Drawing
Influences:
Homer, Turner, Hopper, Sargeant, Yardley, Sego, Joe Zbukvic, Richard Sneary, Michael Reardon and Andy Evansen Thank you!