Artist's Statement

Painting is my pleasure, meditation, opportunity to grow, to appreciate, to share, and most of all - to be myself.

Each person's path is unique and the making of an artist is the result of many influences, some recognized and some passing silently by.

A kind family friend bought me my first professional oil paints, brushes and canvases when I was 11 years old. Commissioning two landscape paintings - he stoked dormant embers into flame.

In London 20 years later I came under the tutelage of Professor Charles Hardaker, Royal Academician. For ten years he coaxed from me the artist within; teaching in a style that focused keenly on the methods of the old masters, while insisting that we must always seek our own truth.

I am more than an oil painter, I am an artist - a compulsive observer, a grateful and gleeful appreciator of form, light and color: A creator and co-creator.