I was born and spent my formative years on the Northern California coast.  We lived 200 yards from the Pacific Ocean.  While very familiar with the coast and its rugged, picturesque qualities, I’ve always been drawn to the “woods”.  First was the “Redwoods” with their cathedral-like filtered light.  The experience was more of being in an “interior” similar to much of the Hudson River School rather than the vast panoramic views of the Rocky Mountain School.  Later subjects were the Eastern Sierras and the Rocky Mountains.  For the last 25 years, I’ve lived in Montana’s Bitterroot Valley and painted Montana and Yellowstone Park.

I am self-taught and have studied and been influenced by Turner, Church, Bierstadt, and Moran.  I do have university coursework and am certified to teach painting and drawing, having taught at university, jr. college, and high school levels.  Professionally I was a member of the San Francisco Artists’ Guild.  The Guild was a group of fifty juried Bay Area artists and showed with them for eight years.  We scheduled about 30 shows.  In addition, there were many other shows, exhibitions, and gallery representations – all in Northern California.

I am a studio painter who works in oil on linen and canvas from my own photographs and sketches.  My interests have always been in the seldom-traveled beautiful, wild, and sublime places of the American West.  I prefer “woods” deep, dark, and mysterious, reminiscent of Rembrandt.  I don’t paint the ordinary.  I hope my work represents those special places.