My passion is to create works of art that people enjoy. I get a lot of satisfaction when one of my art pieces is hung in a place of importance within someone’s home or business. From a very young age I’ve enjoyed drawing and painting. At this stage in my life I had decided to pursue an art career, this was my passion and my calling.
I attended a high school art program at C.W. Jeffery’s Secondary School in Toronto from grades 10 to 12. This program gave me the foundation on which to build my visual art skills. After high school I attended the Ontario College of Art, graduating with a diploma in Fine Arts (Drawing & Painting) followed by the University of Guelph and Queen’s University where I acquired my teaching degree. I have been a high school Art Teacher ever since. In my spare time I have pursued my personal artistic projects. I currently live in Guelph, Ontario.
I have spent many years studying watercolour painting under the mentorship of Chin Kok Tan. Chin offered watercolour courses in St. Andrews by-the-Sea, New Brunswich which I attended in the early 1990’s. I attended his classes out East for four consecutive summers along with other artists from the Toronto area. I was able, in those four years, under Chin’s guidance to improve my mastery of the difficult watercolour medium. I would have art shows after those summer painting sessions. I actually managed to sell a painting or two.
Once our kids were born in 1996 (Lyndon) and 1999 (Tarryn) those sojourns out east ended. So I began to paint closer to home, in the Guelph and Elora area. In 2000 I was lucky enough to be hired to design the poster for that years Elora Music Festival. In the last few years I began teaching a beginners watercolour painting class in both Guelph and Burlington.
Following my time out East I became more involved with my high school teaching career. I ran the mural club, New York city trips and the art nights. My students artwork was always shown in the Annual Woodbridge Fall Fair High School Art competitions. I even taught a figure drawing class for my students in the basement of the Woodbridge Public Library.
Lately I have reawakened my interest in painting with oils. I studied oil painting in my Ontario College of Art days. I have always wanted to learn the secrets of the master painters (Rembrandt, Rueben’s & Vermeer). I really like the artists from the Baroque era. I am presently studying under Paul Richard James, a classically trained painter, out of his Atelier in Hamilton, Ontario. I have recently completed a self portrait in this classical style.