Sam with Flower Painting

from Mingo Jct., Ohio the United States.I am an artist now working in New York City, living in Brooklyn. For some time after school I wanted to illustrate and began working for clients such as the New Yorker and the New York Times. I never found solace in those fields, and it was with the help of my friends Urs Jakob and Suzanne Tremblay, owners of the Gershwin hotel, that I was able to find my true niche. Since, I have been showing in mostly alternative spaces with a few group shows in galleries in SOHO and Minnesota.I am a painter with a first love for drawing. I spent the first five years of my fine art career concentrating primarily on pastels, watercolors, and graphite. For the last two and a half I have converted over to painting. My subjects have been primarily women and horses, but I am constantly exploring more options as I want to use more allegory and narrative. I felt that the figure is the best start-off point for branching off in painting. For once the emotion and the complexity of the human form is understood, then over avenues will begin to show themselves. I am inspired by RB Kitaj, Odd Nerdrum, Van Gogh, Rubens, Rembrandt, Degas, and Max Beckman.