Lennon - POP-WOW! Painting

I spent a good 15 years growing up in Cedar Falls, Iowa and drawing since I was six, self-taught for over a decade and winning awards along the way. At the age of 12, I would most often follow my mom to work on the weekends and spend hours learning techniques and styles from the professional illustrators at Hellman Design & Associates - my mom was a lead designer. This had a tremendous impact on my art. I mastered graphite, color pencil, watercolors and the airbrush. Winner of the National Safety Poster Contest. I have always surrounded myself with creative legends and learned as much as I could from them. With a polished portfolio I entered college for my AAA and BFA degrees. My new skills included advanced airbrush, drawing techniques and hyper realism in several different mediums. I won a gold medal in the VICA Skill Olympics for my advanced skills with the airbrush, awarded to me by President Ronald Reagan in Nashville, Tennessee in 1984. I freelanced while I was in college and got the education of a lifetime. An art director hired me to create several portraits for a magazine article. By the time I was finished, I had advanced tremendously and became known for my hyper realism style with color pencil portraits. I then moved to Hollywood where I became a much sought after illustrator and designer, creating over 2,400 movie posters, DVD/CD covers, album covers and print advertising. My commercial art career lasted for over 30 years and took me around the world, falling in love with Asia where I plan to retire. In 2016 I relocated to Santa Rosa, California for a corporate position as Senior Graphic Designer for a major pharmaceutical company. It was at this time that I became a resident artist at the Fulton Crossing Art Gallery and started painting and drawing like crazy, reinventing myself and perfecting my craft like never before. I was one of 24 employees to be laid off and decided to officially retire from commercial art and graphic design, pouring my heart and soul into painting and drawing. I have had two major shows at the gallery which expanded my audience significantly and brought me many new commission jobs. I have also began to paint larger and larger works, employing more advanced techniques as I go. I have been using graphite to create hyper real portraits since I was 12 years old, moving over to color pencil, then to airbrushed acrylics and watercolor.