A collection of original oil paintings on one of my favorite themes, the sea
You can see and purchase my original paintings at the Art Shop Gallery
Click on images to see larger size
Of the art forms I most enjoy,oil painting is at the top. Few creative experiences can match the joy of pushing wet oil paints around the surface of a springy, textured sheet of canvas. I am a process oriented painter mostly. Meaning that I like to start by sifting through ideas in pencil and proceed to refine the design through various stages.
These often include small color studies and lately the use of my computer to look at different aspects of a design. I will take a digital picture of a color study or painting in progress and use Photoshop to manipulate it in different directions to look for creative possibilites. After that, it's back to the canvas to realize those possibilities.
I often tell students who want to paint water that it is the most difficult thing to master right after learning to paint the human form properly.
Water is transluscent, reflective, has it's own color and texture and is constantly changing and in motion. I have observed water and worked at learning about it since I was ten years old. I still love to give it a try.
As a young man growing up in Norfolk, Va. I spent many hours on and under the water. There I learned to appreciate the beauty of light flickering down from a broken surface to reveal forms in a way completely different from above. In Alaska I used to dive in Halibut Cove Lagoon and observe the large schools of King Salmon milling about in the spring and early summer. From that I worked on my Alaska underwater paintings . Cove Kings is probably the best of this series . The original was purchased by the Pratt Museum in Homer. When I had a solo exhibition there.
