I live in North Vancouver with my wife Theresa.
1976 BA McMaster University, Studio Art and Art History
1976 1977 Graduate Studies Instituto Allende Mexico, Studio Art
1992 BEd University of British Columbia, Secondary Art
I grew up in rural Ontario, spending time between farm country and cottage country. Urban experiences came later so I feel most comfortable with landscape and the human form. The second half of my life has been in British Columbia around mountains and ocean. The landscapes images have been more or less evenly split between Ontario and British Columbia.
For the most part I make paintings in oil on board, canvas or linen, sometimes using acrylic to speed the process when doing the underpainting, but always working over in oil. I like the finish in oil, and the ability to work the surface longer. I also like to be able to layer the paint on a surface to build richer colour and to glaze. Even when working with water colour I prefer gouache to transparent colours because of the ability to layer colour without making the painting muddy.
Over the years I have explored colour, form, geometry and abstraction, which has added structure to the compositions and cohesion to the colour in my current paintings. In the past I have used a calculator when working out compositions, but am no longer so obsessive. There is usually some evidence of human interaction with the landscape, but the natural environment is the dominant element. The paintings with beach logs in particular explore the cycle of death and renewal.