I was formally educated in the biological sciences, at the University of California at Davis. Making countless studies of microscopic and macroscopic forms in nature, I honed my skills for careful observation and accurate drawing. I was admitted into The Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi, of which I am still a member in good standing. After graduating with Highest Honors, I spent years researching, writing, and publishing computer databases and educational handbooks, distributed worldwide.

A Lifelong Love of Art

Inspired by the Renaissance, I never forgot my lifelong love of art — experimenting with pencil, ink, watercolor, acrylics, plaster, clay, wax, resin, etched glass, wood, collage, xerography, photography, video, and animated film. I have designed the websites for nationally acclaimed author Peter Stekel and for noted insect wrangler Steven Kutcher, "The Bug Man" of Hollywood (both valued friends); and I have also served as an art director and a line-producer for the pre-production of a small independent film.

However, it was not until 1996, with the loss of my dear mother, that I came to professionally cultivate my God-given talents for creating life-affirming works of art.

I am an "autodidactic" [self-taught] artist.

From the literature and my experimentation, I learned the basic nature of painting media; but to learn the art of line, form, space, color, and composition, I have spent years carefully studying paintings created by the Old Masters, and by those who influenced them and those whom they have influenced (Please see the links below).

The painters whom I admire the most are from the High Renaissance — celebrating the creativity of humanity — and the Baroque Period — celebrating the drama of life — particularly Leonardo da Vinci, Titian, Rubens, and Rembrandt. Leonardo da Vinci was arguably the most intelligent painter of all time, searching for truth in science and art. Titian was arguably the most influential painter of all time, originating "painterliness" (making paint itself part of the art). Rubens was arguably the most successful painter of all time, enriching his paintings with color and life. And Rembrandt was arguably the greatest painter of all time, showing us the inner spirit as well as the outer aspect of the subjects in his many portraits (including of himself).

For several years, I was the Editor for Portrait Painters in the Open Directory Project, which supplies results for many major search engines as the most comprehensive directory of the internet. Personally, I have profited immensely from viewing and reviewing the wide variety of creative output of my fellow artists (I am proud to say that even before my editorship, some of my most ardent supporters have been other painters).

Here in Southern California, we are blessed with great weather; so most of our art shows are held outdoors. But my works are created in and for lighting indoors. And my best works are in the private collections of my patrons. Fortunately, I am able to show and list my works, throughout the world, by means of this award-winning website (of my own design) as well as in dozens of on-line portfolios, galleries, directories, and magazines: Please see my on-line Exhibitions.

Portraiture, to me, is the most personal of arts. It is, thus, not only my pleasure but also my privilege to create works of art that help us "remember, cherish, honor" the special people and times of our lives.