Summer Night at Cliff Palace Painting

I am a painter of lost worlds. Frequently I do photorealistic acrylic paintings of subjects that are impossible or at least would be very difficult to photograph. At a very young age I came to the realization that my mind could go virtually anywhere in space or time unscathed while my physical body was extremely limited and fragile by comparison. Through researching my subject, developing the requisite techniques for it, and making logical extrapolations, I can explore a plethora of wonders both natural and manmade. If all limits of space and time were suddenly removed and you could not just survive any environment but thrive in them, what would you do? Would you be content to just stay in your familiar neighborhood or explore with reckless abandon? I tend to do the latter. This tendency toward exploration often clashes with the art establishment in which an artist is expected to develop a mature style and stick stringently to one narrow genre’. This is like painting one’s self into a corner and staying there till decomposition sets in. Variety is the spice of life even in art. To balance my adventurous approach with the art establishment norms I often tend to work in series. Here is a scaled down and hopefully not too boring bio. I was born, raised and currently reside in Portland Oregon USA. I started drawing as soon as I was old enough to hold a crayon and have always studied natural history subjects. In high school a phenomenal art teacher saw my interest and worked tirelessly to lay a solid foundation of art principles, media, and techniques for me. Next I attended a small but very excellent commercial art school in Portland which sadly no longer exists. Soon after, I became a planetarium artist at the local science museum, frequently painting 360 degree astronomical landscapes and worked with the special effects people for a period of twenty five years. During this time I developed many techniques on my own and began to get my work published in many books and periodicals. My work has been and still is published worldwide and clients have included the National Science Foundation, The National Geographic Society, and NASA. Paintings have been included in national and international exhibitions and have gotten into to the top 100 of the prestigious Arts for The Parks and Paint the Parks Competitions. Thanks for stopping by and I hope you enjoy this sampling of paintings from my mind travels.