My art journey began with drawing cartoons to amuse myself and my three younger brothers. We lived on a farm, and I think my love of nature first started there. Every season was a wonder to me. An ice storm was like a fairyland, the cool place under our tree, affected me. I drew pictures with pencil and crayons. My first teacher was my imagination.
I went to Brockport State College, taking all the art courses. My favorites were drawing and printmaking. In my drawing class we would draw a nude model. When the model didn’t show up, which was often, our instructor would stand at the door with his hand on the doorknob and instruct us to draw 3 brown paper bags and “to make them different than the last. [I hate the sight of brown bags to this day] I soon saw this as a challenge. Which was the lesson. Now, I see places in
more than one way.
So, I put together my studies, my love of nature and hopefully my style to paint nature the way I want to see it.
I often paint the Ausable, Moose, and the Black Rivers. My most recent place to love is the Gully Preserve. Painting in the Gully last autumn was such a joy. I painted there several times last year and once already this year.
My greatest pleasure is painting. Whether I’m outdoors painting plein air on a small canvas or in my studio using the painting as reference and photos I feel myself in the scene walking around and feeling the ground beneath my feet or hearing the water and feeling the rocks, are they warm or are they cool? The painting titled “St. Regis Mountain” was done on the Smith College property. I did a small painting on a rainy day. Because of the clouds, I saw the mountain appear and disappear several times. The hikers who passed by never saw that, but I did!
Then, to have a viewer say that they feel themselves in the painting is a wonderful feeling for me!
“I opened the door to creativity and found my soul.”