I am a Professional Engineer with a national practice devoted to power, telephone, and CATV utilities design and work practices. Over 24,000 people have attended my live seminars and countless others have used my DVD training. My passions include painting with acrylics and watercolors, turning and carving wood, and carving leather.
Like many children of the 1940s, my first exposure to art was in oil painting classes. I took lessons for several years until developing an allergic reaction to some of the related chemicals. Dad was a good illustrator/engineer (he designed and built office chairs and desks). From him, I learned illustration and woodworking techniques in our basement woodworking shop.
My interests in wood carving and leather carving began in the programs Dad taught for local Boy Scout troops and have continued to increase in intricacy to this day. In my youth, I made all of my carving tools and woodturning gouges with a forge and anvil. While at NC State, I also taught some Boy Scout classes in Raleigh.
"Walking out on a limb sometimes leads to greater views from higher trees."
Perhaps it is because I grew up in the era of Roy Rogers and Gene Autry and the heyday of the westerns, but my major interest in leather carving today is cowboy gunbelts and holsters. Whatever you want to say about life, passion is a great driving force. One of the best cross-platform projects of my artistic career was a leather chess board and turned wood chessmen I made for my chess partner’s 90th birthday.
My interest in abstract art blossomed at the NCSU School of Design in 1961, when I had an opportunity to participate in beta tests of new Liquitex acrylic formulations under the tutelage of Joe Cox and George Bireline. The works of Leroy Nieman, Alexander Calder, Piet Mondrian, Franz Kline, and Jackson Pollock greatly influenced my early acrylic paintings and glazed tile murals. During the 1960s, I also worked with ink washes in abstract forms and watercolors for cartoons (yes, I like a good joke with about 3 levels of entendres).
"I often learn more from a spectacular failure than from a successful piece."
My art interests took a back seat while I built my consulting engineering firm and related businesses, but they emerged again in the late 1990s—almost with a vengeance to make up for lost time. My interests in acrylics and watercolors exploded when I discovered the Raleigh Store of Jerry’s Artarama, its workshops, and the Art of the Carolinas it sponsors each year in November. I have studied under Bob Rankin, Joe DiGiulio, Sterling Edwards, Judi Betts, and others. These people, plus Sharon DiGiulio, Michelle Theberge, and others, have inspired me to take my art craft to higher levels.
"Passion is a great driving force."
Like many artists, I enjoy some things more than others, but I also enjoy breaking out of the mold and trying new things. I find that walking out on a limb sometimes leads to greater views from higher trees. I often learn more from a spectacular failure than from a successful piece and use that failure to build even more spectacular success.
I just love color — particularly bright color! But, I have had to learn to reign in my desire for lots of color, because too much bright color often reduces an otherwise good composition to a ho-hum status. My Earth Series resulted from a conscious effort to concentrate more on balance and value contrast using rich, rather than bright, complementary and contrasting colors. Minor pigments in some colors are major pigments in others. The result is harmonious color. For many of these paintings, small splashes of bright color play against the main design to create movement through the painting.
"Using both the right side and left side of the brain can result in a great marriage of opposing senses."
I am enjoying pushing the limits of modern acrylics using combinations of transparent watercolor techniques and opaque acrylic techniques. These superb capabilities allowed me to give freer rein to my desire for lots of hot color in my Riots of Color Series. Each painting in this series has a relatively benign underpainting that is overlaid with glazes of bright colors, as well as complementary opaque areas. Each also contrasts freeform designs with structured shapes. Using both the right side and left side of the brain can result in a great marriage of opposing senses. I have taught the use of acrylic glazes in this style of painting at Jerry’s Artarama in Raleigh.
My Southwest Series also allows me to explore the use of bright colors with more earthly colors, but in a very structured format. Many of this series of paintings feature earth tones and metallic colors in combination with bright yellows and reds.
The Oriental Flowers Series explores the muted colors of spring and summer flowers in a relatively structured format. It is amazing how such simple formats can be so pleasing to the eye.
"Color adds the spice
of life."
Over the years, I have been enthralled by several works of art made in handmade cast paper. These works vary from the very simple to the extremely complex in texture. They formed the inspiration for my Cast Acrylic Series. I use handmade stencils to cast simple shapes onto an evenly graded or monotone background. The texture and shapes tell the story. Color adds the spice of life.
Fans have been used forever to create mystery, revealing as much behind the fan as the user wants to viewer to or imagine! This is the inspiration for my Fan Series. Fans can be fun, or flirtatious — or even just plain naughty.
My Dots and Lines Series is playful. Most of these paintings use muted colors with a few bright spots or lines playing off against the basic design. This series uses simple designs, with simple color schemes, but has lots going on to entertain the viewer.
I look forward to hearing your reactions to these works.