Q. Where did I receive my art training?
A. I am a self-taught artist. I was too lazy, and too stubborn, to listen to a teacher. While I regret my youthful folly, for better or worse I did develop my own unique style of painting, which most people seem to like. So it all worked out for the best in the end.
Q. How long have I been drawing and painting?
A. For fifty years (all of my life)- but I have been a professional artist for only the past 18 years.
Q. What are soft pastels, and why do you use them?
A. Pastels are very soft, brilliantly colorful, and very expensive chalks. I use them because I achieve much better and more realistic results than I can achieve with paints, in a much shorter time. There is no need for mixing paints on a palette, or waiting for paints to dry. Pastels are an ideal medium for outdoor "plein air" painting- and pastels are considered a form of painting. Pastels possess a vibrant, ethereal quality, a "glow" which for me breathes life into a landscape like no other medium. Finally, working with pastels is similar to drawing, and I have always been more comfortable drawing than working with a paintbrush. To each his own, and mine are pastels.
Q. What type of surface do I paint on?
A. I paint on acid free, canvas-textured matte boards of various color tones, which provide an ideal "ground" for my style of painting. The matte boards are thick, strong, and hold up well in an outdoor, often windy and damp environment.
Q. How are pastel paintings preserved, and how long do they last?
A. My pastels receive a light spray coating of a clear acrylic fixative. They are then framed under glass (with about 1/8" of space between the painting and the glass to prevent mildew problems), which serves as the final protective layer for the painting. When properly fixed, framed, and hung out of direct sunlight or a room with high humidity (such as a bathroom), a pastel painting will last hundreds of years, as have many pastels from as early as the Renaissance. Pastels are not prone to cracking, yellowing, or the other chemical degradations common to oil paintings.
Q. Where did I live and paint before moving to La Jolla?
A. I lived in the Eastern Sierra Nevada region near Mammoth Lakes, California. This is where I became a professional artist and where I most enjoy painting. I have always loved the Sierra, and I feel that love for these mountains comes across in my art work. I still spend several weeks every year painting, backpacking, fishing, and exploring the High Sierra.
Q. Where else do I enjoy painting?
A. I enjoy painting the redrock country of southern Utah, and the Grand Teton mountains in Wyoming. In the summer of 2002 I traveled to the Swiss Alps and spent two weeks painting in Zermatt and Interlaken. To paint at the foot of the Matterhorn was especially wonderful- a life-long dream come true. While painting in Zermatt, I was invited to display my work in the Capricorn Gallery on the main town square. My Swiss Alps paintings appear in this website.
Q. Do I have a studio or gallery of my own?
A. No- I paint exclusively outdoors, usually where passersby can see me working, but my favorite places to paint are usually far up some lonely Sierra trail where very few people can see what I do. Hopefully this website will solve that problem.
Q. Have I won any major awards or competitions?
A. I won a first place award at the Del Mar Fair here in San Diego in 1998, and a second place overall at the California State Fair in 1996 with what I consider my finest painting ever (Mt. Williamson, which appears on y Sierra page). I also won Best of Show for three consecutive years at the Tri-County Fair in Bishop, California. I got the moral encouragement I required for those shows and I have not entered an art competition since then.
Q. Do I give art lessons?
A. Yes, grudgingly and occasionally, but I tend to expect my students to survive some pretty long (all-day) painting sessions. If I find a student with the same love for landscape painting which I have always had, I find teaching pastel painting a real pleasure.
Q. In what style of art do I paint?
A. I consider myself a "realistic impressionist." I work fast and loose, but my pictures invariably possess the illusion of a photo-like reality. Up close, my "details" are really just smudges, flecks of thick chalk, and other forms of "controlled messiness" which I have learned over the years. I can usually finish a decent-sized painting in about 8 hours, with about 3 separate layers of pastel applied over a spray of workable fixative, achieving a very thick and solid look to my landscape foregrounds, while keeping the skies light and airy.
Q. Why do you paint such large pictures?
A. I believe that landscapes should be large. It's a big world out there, and a small format does not do it justice. Plus, painting with pastels has certain physical restrictions, and bigger formats make the job much easier. Actually, I have downsized quite a bit over the years. When I first started in pastels, I would almost always paint really large pictures- up to 30"x 40"- because I found it difficult to paint small details in a smaller format. However, my preferred size today has shrunk to 18"x 24," for several reasons-
1. It is a good compromise size in which I can master details without wearing myself out too much.
2. It is still big enough to do justice to a sweeping scene.
3. It is more affordable for the average client, since I can finish this size in about half the time of a 30"x40" picture.
Q. Do I sell photo reproductions of my originals?
A. Yes. I can get any of the pictures in this website made into high-quality, very affordable photographic reproductions of any size, from 8"x10" up to the original size of the painting (up to 30"x40"). Obviously, the larger the reproduction, the greater the cost, but even large reproductions are much less expensive than originals. See my REPRODUCTIONS page for prices and sizes. The company with which I work (Photodyne, in San Diego) produces wonderfully clear and true-color reproductions on high quality papers- in fact, some of their reproductions feature better color than my originals. While it is possible to "pirate" your own reproductions from this website, the quality of the digital photos displayed here is so low that your enlargements will be very mushy.
Q. Am I a full-time professional artist?
A. No, although I plan to be within few years. I am a teacher in a private school in La Jolla, where I teach astronomy and technical theater, among other subjects. My artistic talents are put to use in the technical theater class, where I produce large-scale paintings backgrounds, often up to 40 feet wiide, for theater productions; I design and build sets as well, and teach middle school students how to do these things too. In the coming school year I will be teaching part time in order to devote more time to my landscape painting career, which I plan to continue on a full-time basis when my daughter graduates from college.
Q. What does my family think of my paintings? A. Debby, my wonderful wife of 25 years, thinks they are great- especially when they sell. My beautiful daughter Wendy, who will be entering her sophomore year in college in Fall 2002, produced and manages this website for me (computer illiterate that I am), and thinks my pictures are great because they generate an easy monthly paycheck for her.
Q. Do I have artists in my family?
A. None in my past that I am aware of. Wendy did not inherit my painting talent, but she is a budding actress/ singer/dancer who hopes to make a career in the theater. She has my blessing and support.
