About the Artist
A FEW DETAILS
Painting started for me around age 5, I think. My mom bought me a kid's easel at the hardware store (yes, the hardware store) and then she taught me a few things, she, having been an art major at UW-Madison way back when. I had a paint box with red, yellow, blue, black and white, and she told me that's all I needed. Technically, she was right. For many years I painted on and off in a few different mediums. In 2006 I switched mostly to oil paints. Prior to this I had used acrylic paints, and still do on occasion, depending on the project.
I studied with a couple of mentors (Dan Edmondson--still life, landscape, portraiture, 3 years) with the most recent being John Potoschnik, a 16 month mentorship focusing on limited palette painting (right back to that old paint box concept). Various workshops I have taken at the Peninsula School of Art (Fish Creek, Door County, WI) include those by Kyle Martin, Shelby Keefe, and Michael Banning. I've also studied color theory, live model painting, drawing, technical botanical drawing and pastels with other instructors.
I taught several different painting courses for 7.5 years at MSCR (Madison Schools and Community Rec) and wrote the book Famous Wisconsin Artists published by Badger Books for their Famous WI Series. I have displayed art at Museum of WI Art (member show) and the Kohler Museum (juried). My art mainly sells by word-of-mouth sales, commissions, auctions, and recently in an MSCR charitable auction. Currently, I teach (coach) atelier (studio) painting in my home and take on 1-2 mentorships at a time.
I did extensive course work in Art History while in school and made it past the cave paintings, which are pretty unique in themselves. Finally, made it to the 21st Century. Baroque, Rococo, Impressionism, and all of the other periods and artists have their places. There is something to be learned, always when you're exploring in the Way Back machine.
I paint still life, landscape, genre paintings--usually from historical images (old, not very good, photos) and my own photos, florals, animals. Generally, I paint in oil on linen, canvas, aluminum, and board. Limited palette painting is preferred. My style is impressionism, although I also use realism from time to time. Member Oil Painters of America.
