Making Snow Angels
The artist must train not only his eye but also his soul. (Kanainsky)

When you are four, life is full of innocent wonder. Such as the first winter snowstorm when the earth is covered in a blanket of white and you are the  first to make footprints in the newly fallen snow, collapsing in giggles when you fall back to make a snow angel.

Remember how wonderful it was to get a new box of shiny Crayola crayons with no broken points and a new coloring book? Or better yet, plain white paper to create your own designs and pictures. Grade school brought Babylonian Gardens , scrolls and the Book of Kells. I would spend hours drawing scrolls.

In high school I copied in pencil an oil painting by my grandfather. It was a three masted schooner with billowing sails, healed to starboard plowing through high seas.  Pencil quickly became my first love and I made the statement that black and white was and always would be “My Medium”. Ah, youth!

Black and white photography followed as did the challenge of capturing light and value…the ever elusive light. Even after professional instruction I find it hard to capture it to my complete satisfaction.

In my early thirties I took a watercolor class. I was smitten. The journey began to capture not only light, but also the color of the world around me. Thirty plus years later I still feel the same excitement I felt when I first touched my brush loaded with juicy pigment next to a wash of water. MAGIC! The paint took on a life of it’s own as it mixed and mingled. The magic remains each time I begin a new painting. I am always excited to explore, create, and capture the color and light of my world.

When I am asked why I paint, I find it difficult to answer. What I do know for sure is that I need to paint just as I need to breathe. Art is a part of who and what I am and stirs my heart and soul unlike any other feeling. I need to get my image onto paper or canvas be it a landscape, a still life, floral, or  marine painting. What draws me in initially is color.  It entices me. Then I begin to focus on light, values and line.  I try to capture the majesty of Mother Nature.

When I worked in administration, I would spend my weekends with my camera and during the week I would paint at night from my reference photos. Necessity made me a studio painter.  Now, in retirement, I have the time and luxury to plein aire paint.  However I find there are too many distractions, so a studio painter I will remain.

PS. I still love making snow angels