"Demons! It's unpaintable!"
… John Singer Sargent (I figure that if a master like Sargent felt like this from time to time, I must be in good company.)

"I want to paint in such a way that you feel the details instead of see them"
… Frederick Remington

If you want to learn to draw well, you'll have to make at least 2500 mistakes. So…you'd better get started
… paraphrasing a former teacher of Robert Bateman

"It's all about practice"
… Keith Brocke

"Talent equals hours. Artists are made, not born."
… Mel Ramos

About Painting

There is much that could be written here about approaches to painting. Any look at the work I've done will show that my style involves an attempt at realism, though my aim has never been to reproduce photographs. They prove useful for gathering information, but nothing more. Suffice it to say that I have always had a hard time calling myself an "artist".

I view myself more as a painter than an artist. I see something beautiful and find that I want to capture and then convey some of it through the medium of drawing or painting. For me, to give voice to a subject is what's most important; to portray something so as to let the viewer see the essence of it, it's personality, it's way, it's character, some part of what it truly is. Of course, capturing the entire essence of something is impossible. A painting (even an exquisite one) of a bird will not always cause the viewer to hear the bird's call.

Paintings convey moments in time, not entire life histories, so the entirety of a subject's essence will not be fully conveyed in them. But if a painter can pass on a certain character of the subject, allowing the subject's "voice" to come through to the viewing audience, then that person has met with a degree of success. I suppose my motto would be: Follow the paint! It will almost always show you what comes next. When I'm gone, look to the work. I'll be found in the work.

Finally, As I continue to produce images I find it helpful to keep in mind what others have said. To the left are words that still encourage me.

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