Biography
I am an American figurative painter currently living in the wine growing region along the Rhine with my wife and children.
I studied history at Washington State University. After college, I spent eight years flying helicopters before working as an assistant supervisor of a public library. After exhausting the library's collection of art books, I decided to seek out an education in classical drawing and painting at the Academy of Fine Art Germany.
Beyond painting and drawing, I enjoy cooking, reading, and driving. However, my favorite past time is walking through the vineyards with my wife.
Inspiration
I find inspiration traveling along dusty bookshelves, lonely two-lane roads, and streets adorned with architecture. Libraries, museums, and junkyards are among my favorite places to find the muse.
I was introduced to paintings through small reproductions in textbooks. Works by Raphael, Titian, and David gave form to history and literature, suggesting the richness of the world beyond the rolling wheat fields of eastern Washington where I grew up.
For me, painting is an assertion that we create the world we live in. It is an effort to reaffirm what is good and beautiful and to consciously make more of it. Painting is a modest but sincere effort to shape the world I live in for the better.
Process
I work in layers to leverage oil paints versatility. I begin every painting with a drawing that I build subsequent layers of paint over. My methods are personal adaptations of classical painting techniques that enable me to create compelling visual stories from my small studio near Mainz, Germany.
While my process is rooted in tradition, my work focuses on broadly contemporary themes and subjects. My paintings are designed to create the illusion of depth and structure, by balancing form with color. The end result lay somewhere between idealization and vibrant realism.