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I grew up in the town of Simcoe, Ontario, which is located five miles north of Lake Erie. Excepting two years, I have resided here all my life. Although my three children have grown and left the nest, they, along with my five grandchildren, are the light of my life.
I began dabbling in oils after my second child was born in 1965. Upon finding I needed further instruction in laying down my paint and mixing colours, I took a night course at our local High School under the direction of Verna Gamble of Port Dover. Initially I concentrated on portrait work. Wishing to branch out into scenery and other subject matter I enrolled in another night school course under the direction of Ross Bateman and got the feel for acrylic paint, which I found to be very versatile and forgiving. I then put my paints away for awhile and entered the work force, but brought them out again in 1984 and created my own style, which included airbrushing my backgrounds with gouache (tempera) paint.
Having always been interested in nature, I acquired a camera and telephoto lens which enabled me to gather subject matter from which to paint wildlife originals. With the use of my airbrush I created backgrounds to give my pictures depth, and make the foregrounds stand out. I love to paint all the minute details into my pictures as we often overlook so much in nature. My wish is for viewers to look deeply into my work, and through my brush strokes, see things they might overlook in real life.
After completing several pieces, I entered a few competitions which resulted in my being awarded two 'Firsts' at the Out of Doors Hunting and Fishing Wildlife Art Exhibition, two consecutive 'Best of Shows' at the Norfolk County Fair, and the 'Future Promise' award at the Buckhorn Wildlife Art Festival, which is being presented to me in the photo below by Michael Dumas.
Over the next four years I adopted a more commercial outlook in attending Art Shows, as illustrated by my display booth in the photo below.
Currently I have three limited edition prints, one being 'The Rose'. I hope you enjoy my work. |