My Story

I'm a self-taught artist. My experience over the past few decades had been in wood carving, but a horrendous fire that took our California home in August of 2020 also did away with my collections of balsa wood carved pieces, which only survive in my Dance in Wood website. Somehow, and without even being aware of it, my artistic inclination then switched from wood carving to drawing. It felt as if returning to wood carving would bring back such painful memories, memoriesI had to leave it behind with the rest of our personal physical and emotional possessions.

I  started drawing at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, in March of 2020. I've found this art form to be very satisfying and stimulating, especially when it comes to portrait work. I've drawn portraits of friends, acquaintances, family members, pets, as well as unknown individuals, whose expressions made an impression on me.  In all instances, my attempt has always been to capture a certain gesture, an air of the person or animal being portrayed. I base my work mostly on photographs, but I also draw live models.​ In this site, I've included many of my drawings, some in charcoal, but most in graphite, my preferred medium. I use only the most basic tools: pencils, charcoal, erasers, tortillions, and the like. It's all a work of love and observation.

Since 2023, my focus has been acrylic painting, more specifically portraits friends and the likes of wild animals, which I've also included in this website. I've also experimented with driftwood sculpting under the watchful eye of my mentor, Tuttie Peetz. At the insistence  of fellow artists, I'm returning to wood carving, but never to leave painting or drawing behind.

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