About

I have always engaged in a multitude of activities. I studied art, studied music and played piano, and majored in the hospitality industry, before deciding on a career in engineering. After a few years working in private industry, I was hired by the Federal Aviation Administration and employed there for over thirty years as a computer programmer and test engineer. Throughout raising a family, working, and running, art was always an integral part of my life.

With my family grown, a marathon run in every state, and being recently retired, I am able to focus my time on my artwork - primarily cold wax paintings and mixed media sculptures.

Paintings

Cold wax medium combines the traditionally rich colors of oil paint with a medium that is ideal for retaining texture and for layering colors.

Questions I get asked most frequently:
Q. What is cold wax painting?
A. Cold wax is a soft paste made from beeswax, resin and solvent. It’s mixed directly with oil paint and applied with various tools to a prepared wood panel. The addition of cold wax does several things: it speeds up the drying time of oil paint, adds translucency, and allows for adding textures, building up and scraping off, revealing underlying colors.

Q. How do you know when a painting is done?
A. It isn’t always easy or clear. It’s easier to know when a painting isn’t finished, when either the colors don’t quite express enough activity or emotion or when some areas distract from the composition as a whole. Each painting has its own unique ideas to express, and I try to respond to what that painting needs and remove anything that obstructs that vision.

Q. How long does it take to finish a painting?
A. Some are completed in a day. Some may take several days in order for the first layers to set up before more layers are added. Others may linger in the studio for weeks until I have studied them enough to decide how I want to proceed, then the process of adding or subtracting layers and textures begins again. The paintings may need to dry for weeks before the final layer of varnish is applied.

Mixed Media

Questions I get asked most frequently:
Q. Where do you get your materials?
A. Any and everywhere.  Rusted cans from the street, birdcages and clocks from junk and antique shops, broken rocking horses and metal letters from garage and estate sales, tidal maps from friends’ basements, sticks and birds’ nests from nature hikes…