Tell us briefly about your background & how you got started in your medium.
I spent a lot of years working with pen and ink in my younger days and eventually turned toward editorial cartooning back in the 80’s and 90’s…always staying in touch with pen and ink illustration.  Around that same time I also began to become more serious about painting in oils which initially captured my interest during my high school years.

How does your medium inform your viewpoint? Or what do you like most about your medium?
What I like most about working with oils is the versatility of the materials during the painting process.  It can be applied as a thin wash or layered in a thicker application with a palette knife.  You can work wet on wet …or leave the initial underpainting dry and then add paint on top of the dry layer and continue working in different techniques.  It allows the artist to experiment and move the paint around.

Who or what have been your artistic inspirations?
I find inspiration in the beauty and solitude of the landscape and you will find the majority of my paintings are based on outdoor scenes where the focus of the painting might be the Susquehanna River….a grouping of trees…or a New England salt marsh.

Do you have a favorite piece in your portfolio?
I can’t say I have one personal favorite painting in my portfolio because I find that upon reflection I recall a number of paintings that I remember fondly for a variety of reasons.  Among my favorites is a painting of a farm wagon in an orchard setting.  I remember that one because I was particularly pleased with the painterly quality that I felt I achieved during that work.  I can think of many others where I captured certain aspects of the subject matter which in my assessment turned out to be the reason I thought the painting was a success.  For me, to single out one piece that I would say was my favorite would be an impossible task.

What would be your advice to artists just starting out in your medium?
What advice would I have for someone who was considering trying their hand at painting in oils.  You will find that you will get a lot of advice on how to paint from a lot of different instructors, friends, fellow artists, et cetera.  Listen to them all.  Absorb everything they tell you.  Try all of the different things that they tell you to do…and even those things that they tell you not to do…and follow your inner voice.  Enjoy the process.  Experiment.  Make mistakes…learn…and just keep painting.