Artist's Statement

As an artist with a broad background of styles, mediums and subjects I have found traditional oil portraits
to offer both the greatest challenge and the greatest reward.

My father is a portrait artist, and growing up I always admired the connection Dad’s work made with his clients.  In an age of
detachment, mass-production and disposable everything, portraiture was personal and enduring.  Nonetheless, when I embarked on a
career my initial interest and training was in abstract art, but over the years as I found my wife and started a family I longed to portray
the essential moments of life, the delightful and the profound.  More and more I was attracted to painting the beauty, dignity and
particular character of the individual, which is the art of true portraiture and the heart of my calling.

My standards are exacting: I work to achieve an appealing likeness and to convey the subject’s  unique nature – the mood, the pose, the
gesture that will draw the viewer in and immediately elicit a smile of recognition from those who know and love the subject best.  
Consequently,  every new portrait demands all my skill and creativity – painting a good portrait is never easy!  

The recompense for the difficulty is in the shared joy of success.  A portrait is commissioned with tremendous appreciation for the
subject and a hopeful vision of capturing him or her on canvas to be treasured forever.  When I complete a portrait and this vision
entrusted to me has been realized, my satisfaction is doubly full and sweet.  As with no other art portraiture unites the artist and the
viewer, which is what makes it so hard and so thoroughly worthwhile!