Growing up in the Potomac Valley region of West Virginia offered the perfect outdoor classroom for my earliest adventures, and making art.  Once I discovered the world of oil paint, I was hooked on its possibilities and my first inspiration came from landscape artists such as Robert Wood.  Later, in my undergraduate education during some travel through Italy, and especially France, and touring their wonderful museums, I was mesmerized by the poetic quality of light, shadow, and color displayed in the 19th century Barbizon School and Impressionist painters.  From then on, work I did in photography or painting, was to try and impart a feeling of poetry in the landscape, generally, (but not exclusively), undisturbed or absent from human presence. And although most of my work focuses on landscape as a theme, it matters not if I choose a boat on the water, a bowl of fruit, or semi-abstract shapes, my goal, and approach remain the same. I am attracted to those artists who engage the viewer’s imagination and feeling about composition through light, shadows, color, and composition rather than just recording a scene.  That is also what I hope to achieve in my art.

With also a love for history and travel, my educational pursuits led me to a B.A. and M.A in history with minors in Art History and French.  My post-graduate studies ended with a Ph.D. in Humanities from Florida State University with a focus on literature and art history.  I had a 25-year teaching career in the humanities at The University of Toledo from which I just retired.   During my tenure, I continued my love of creating the type of art that I enjoyed sharing in the classroom.  I have been active in entering local and national art competitions and have been represented in galleries in Florida, Ohio, West Virginia California and I have had one retrospective show at the Hermitage Inn Gallery in Petersburg WV.  I have lived, worked, and/or studied, in Tulsa, OK, Wake Forest, NC, Tallahassee, FL, Santa Fe, NM, Paris, France, and The Art Students League in New York.   Although I have been mostly a self-taught artist, (learning by doing), my most recent mentors who have provided inspiration and guidance in workshops are the late, prolific Texas pastel artist, Ben Konis, Santa Fe, plein air painters, Bob Rohm, and Anita Louise West, and life-long friend, noted Michigan artist, Stephen Duren.

Since retiring from teaching I have been able to devote full-time attention to furthering my love of doing plein air studies in pastels and oil paintings of the American landscape. During my teaching career, I lived on a farm in MI with my wife, Joni, where we raised two sons, and rescued numerous animals.  My wife and I share an interest in travel,  reading, enjoying nature walks, and playing music with our folk band, “Side II,” or our trio, “Traveling Light”  with me on guitar and her on keyboard or ukulele.  We recently left Michigan—sadly missing our folk band—but are totally enjoying our new home in Florida with daily bike rides to the beach along with having free time to explore our creative interests in the sunshine state.