Fine Art

It is an amazing feeling to step back from a work of art that you have been dabbing paint on, wiping paint off, squinting your eyes at to gauge lights and darks, squaring your hands up to analyze composition, constantly studying it's color harmony, and be content with it's final stare back at you.

I was commissioned to do two bird paintings. To be able to work simultaneously on two very different expressions, a soft and elegant white egret and a bold and dominant blue heron, was so fulfilling. I loved that the commission was for a husband and wife- each of them personally chose a bird and then let me loose to interpret the art. This artwork was done with oil on canvas.

Painting is a wrestling match and a wedding dance all at the same time.

I have a love for realism mixed with expressionism. The piece above was done in oil and is a study of one of my favorite living painters, Richard Schmid. His version of this piece was in watercolor, a medium I also love - I did the study very quickly and was drawn to it because of the beautiful color palette and simple architectural subject matter.

The artwork above is a very special moment that I depicted from a trash dump community called La Chureca located in Managua, Nicaragua. This piece is in honor of the "pickers" and the hopeful future of the generations to come. I composed this inking by working with the photography of 2 exceptional artists, Brian Nevins and Luiz Maximiano. I really enjoy the fine detailing that inking calls for and the reality that when the mark goes down there is no erasing.

The piece above marked a really neat part of my journey as an artist. I was exposed to a sad reality that the Moon Bear in China was being victimized for it's bile, mainly for cosmetics. That didn't seem harmful until I realized how they extracted the bile from these bears using tubes while they lived locked in tiny "crush cages". I was disturbed. It moved me towards the inspiration of this piece. 

I love rendering portraits, especially ones with character. This was a moment from a photograph during my time at Watts Atelier. During my study I was experimenting with various mediums. This piece is terracotta pencil and white chalk. I sold this piece at a show to an African American woman who engaged me immediately upon seeing this piece. It is amazing how art links people together and how one single moment which means one thing to me could mean something totally different to somebody else. It was very fulfilling to know the woman who purchased this art would treasure it.