Biography

• As an apprentice at Charles E. Cooper Studios in New York, I was inspired by the illustrations I saw being done by the top artists in the field. During the day, I did what I was asked to do, cleaning palettes and brushes, matting painting, running errands. I did my own work at night, sometime all night.
  
  After being there about 6 months, Coby Whitmore brought in an illustration for Cosmopolitan magazine, which I matted. He saw the sample I had done the night before and asked if he could take it with him to Cosmo to show the Art Director. Upon his return, he told me they had bought my sample and to bill them for $1,000. Earning $35 a week at that time, it seemed like a fortune to me.
  
  Within six months my illustrations were appearing, in three major magazines. Coby was my mentor in the early days of my career and we became life-long friends.

• A few adult clients will give me the opportunity to paint from life, which I love to do. Occasionally, I am able to do my non-portrait work from life. However, most of my portraits and paintings begin with photographs. I plan the photo sessions carefully, thinking of the camera as a sketch tool. I love photos which turn me on to painting. The lighting, the values, the shapes I see in the camera are all important. My experiences in illustration are invaluable in this process.
  
  I prefer to use black and white prints so that the film does not impose its color on me. It is often necessary to combine elements from a number of different photos and to correct the drawing. Yes, photos do lie.
  
  Both Marilyn and Brynne are also able to take photographs which I like to use. Jolyn helps with photography of children. They seem to understand what I need.
  
  After selecting the photographs I want to use, I start working directly with the oil paints and large brushes, blocking in the shapes and values as quickly as possible. At the end of the first session, any viewer can get the feeling of what the finished painting will be like. After that, it is a matter of building and refining, putting paint and color down and reacting to it.
  
  Whether working from life or from photos, I begin by blocking in areas of value and color and bring the painting up throughout, without letting one area develop too far ahead of the whole. I see oil painting as an investigation, building with form rather than line. It requires destroying and rebuilding.

• The challenge of portraiture is creating a beautiful painting which anyone can enjoy, but that the client is thrilled to have. You must satisfy not only yourself as an artist, but the client who has commissioned the portrait. It is the challenge I really enjoy.
  
  On the first meeting with a subject, I try to remember the initial impression they project, their personality, their presence. This is important when interpreting the photographs which often have too much information in them.

• It is difficult to be experimental with portraits, with the needs and the expectations of the clients in mind. Therefore, it is essential for my growth as an artist to seek inspiration from the great painters then incorporate things I have seen into my own work.
  
  In the early years, I would spend hours, even days at the Metropolitan Museum, searching every inch of the master painters' works. The guards would get nervous because I seemed to be licking the paint off the paintings. Now I use my art books and color plates in my extensive library for information and inspiration. I have been asked to will my library to an art institution. Hope I have quite a few more years to use it first.

• In theory, it's about as simple as you can get. It has to do with solid knowledge of the color wheel and complementary colors, plus the use of temperature changes from cools to warms to create volume, life, and light in a painting. A painter should know the color wheel like a guitarist knows the strings. By using this color theory I obtain vibrations of color that excite the eye.

• When asked that question I say, "It could be a day, two weeks or a month . . . plus sixty years. All of my past experiences are put into each painting.

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