I was born and raised about an hour north of the Montana/Alberta border and an hour east of the Rockies. There was prairie right outside my back door and you could see Chief Mt. and the mountains to the west. I don’t remember a day without wind and very few days that did not have a brilliant blue sky and penetrating sun, even in winter. I remember spear grass fights, meadowlark songs and Chinooks. All the building blocks were there.

I started painting in high school and continued in college, mostly in acrylic. My story is familiar in that I did have some formal training but was mostly self-taught; academic art being unstructured as it was in the 1970’s. I did not follow an artistic career, I chose a path more worn.

I studied and worked in London, England from 1977-1979 and although art was an avocation at this point, I had ample time to immerse myself in the museums and great houses of Britain and with trips to the continent. I continued graduate school (again not in art) in London, Ontario from 1979-1984 and began a sojourn into watercolor. I wanted to paint but I found it very frustrating and finally, after a number of years, destroyed everything. I did not know how to get the results I wanted with my medium. I knew what I wanted to paint but just couldn’t get there. Over the next 20 years I would occaisionally start again but it would not last long.

After a few short years in Calgary I found myself pursuing my career in Minnesota where I have lived since 1996. With its vibrant arts community and opportunities for training and mentorship I was finally able to set some specific goals and achieve much of what I felt I was missing in my art. I have mostly been working in oil for the past years. In Minnesota I have learned to enjoy the lakes and forests and have improved my understanding of the Woodland School and the Group of Seven . I relate better to their vivid palette as contrasted to the more subtle palette of  the prairies. I do portraits in a manner of the midwest social realists. I do some still life’s. However, I am mostly drawn to the prairies and mountains that I was brought up with.