Painting
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Member of Flag since: 2025
STATEMENT:
The artist has lived full-time in Florida for 5 years (12 months a year). Ideas come from daily life, travel, an appreciation of natural beauty, and a love of all things historical. Ideas may come from appreciating other artists’ work and wanting to learn those skills, or from being outside looking for a plein air subject. Painting often involves a beginning in acrylics to establish a base of warm color and composition of darks and lights. Then, painting begins in earnest with oils.
Small paintings are done on canvas boards or wood, and larger than 11×14 are done on stretched canvas. Paintings start with Liquin for fast drying and are finished with thick paint, often involving the pallet knife. Cold wax often adds texture to the final layers and/or glazing.
Recurring themes are landscapes, particularly Florida landscapes, with a partiality to sunsets or late day. Salt Marsh, beaches, and Old Florida photos provide endless themes. This is probably the artist’s ‘cloud phase,’ but a current theme is clouds, done on increasingly large canvases. The artist uses photography to capture details and to be able to continue working on plein air pieces in the studio.
Inspiration comes from the artist’s favorite artists, such as Terry Miura, Jove Wong, and T.J. Cunningham, as contemporaries. Historical artists include Hoppe, Sorolla, and Sargent. Their ability to say more with less is a constant inspiration.
This artist’s work is distinctive in the use of everyday human activity and color to express the mood the artist is feeling during the painting process. The primary weakness of the artist’s work over the past 5 years may be its broad array of subjects and experimentation with many different styles. An insatiable desire to ‘paint everything’ and to learn how other artists paint in their unique style can get in the way of presenting a unified body of work.
The artist’s intent is to encourage viewers to look more closely at their surroundings to see that beautiful paintings may originate in many diverse environments, even on a crowded city bus in the 50s. Unusual subject matter coupled with vibrant colors aimed to evoke a sense of wonder and appreciation for everyday common scenes.
RESUME:
Education:
The artist is largely self-taught but has attended over 20 workshops and classes across the country and locally. Teachers included Jove Wong (California), Terry Miura (CA), Tom Horn (CA), Anne Blair Brown (GA), Bill Farnsworth (FL), Trey Finney (GA), T.J. Cunningham (MI), Kevin Mench (GA), Camille Przewodek, and many others. The artist takes advantage of local classes to approach unfamiliar subjects when not teaching.
Professional Summary and Objectives:
The artist is an accomplished artist with 30 years of painting experience and 5 years as a professional in original impressionist oil painting. The artist specializes in landscapes but has had considerable success painting human interest scenes common to Florida such as marinas filled with people, restaurant interiors, and cityscapes. The artist seeks to further develop painting skills, make new acquaintances in the arts, and volunteer in events to further art appreciation and participation. The artist excels at impressionistic, though representational, oil paintings of all sizes, and teaches a unique approach to painting based primarily on identifying shapes and painting ‘general’ colors, leading to blending shapes resulting in an identifiable image.
GALLERY REPRESENTATION:
Since 2020, the artist has been part owner of Anna Maria Island Gallery (no Island Gallery) in Bradenton, FL. Paintings were displayed and regularly sold, adding to a rich experience of a community gallery. The artist provided public oil painting demonstrations, organized a group which met for plein air painting, donated art for local fundraisers, provided painting classes at local retirement homes, and taught classes at the gallery.
EXHIBITIONS:
Annual East2West Art Show, Palma Sola Art Show, Island Gallery Featured Artist show, Artists’ Advocates gallery and organized and exhibited a fundraiser art show at Christ Episcopal church.
PUBLIC INSTALLATIONS:
The artist was featured by the local organization to paint a large painting during a downtown Christmas festival and was hired to paint a 4-foot x 6-foot painting for a River Walk festival 2024. The artist is already under contract to paint at another public function in November.
MEDIA/PUBLICATIONS:
In 2025, the artist’s painting was featured on the cover of Bradenton Magazine, accompanied by a two-page biographical article.