I’m a Victoria based artist with an unrelenting fascination for painting from real life. I find great inspiration in what I see and feel in nature – the natural and built environment and human nature. Hooked on plein air painting, I paint anywhere, no matter the weather, time of day or crowded setting. Oils are my preferred medium with subjects ranging from wild sea coasts, gentle landscapes, snowy mountains, wide open skies, busy streets, and quiet interiors.
Outdoors, I usually paint on small panels in one session to achieve a freshness and immediacy in my work. In my studio I use these “plein air sketches” as a source of inspiration for larger paintings. For me painting is a revelation, showing people a way of seeing the world; a process of representing three dimensions in two, and the passage of time in a single moment.
I’m an Exhibiting Member of the Federation of Canadian Artists and a member of the mAlfs -- a group of Victoria artists who paint outside each week. I paint regularly with the Al Frescoes, a Victoria plein air painting group. I participate annually in the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria Moss Street Paint-In and the Fairfield Artists Studio Tour. I am a member of the Board of Directors of the Vancouver Island School of Art.
Exhibiting regularly at the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, the Federation of Canadian Artists, and other local galleries, my paintings are included in private and public collections across Canada and the United States.
I have taken numerous painting and drawing courses, workshops and private lessons with some of the top artists and teachers. During my many travels I paint ‘en plein air’, be it adventures in my sailboat along BC’s west coast or more distant excursions to England, France, Italy, Africa and China.
I’m a graduate of the Graduate School of Fine Arts, University of Pennsylvania (MCP), University of Waterloo (BA), and the University of California, Berkeley (MPP and PhD). I’ve been a senior public servant in the Canadian federal government in Ottawa, a university professor of public policy at the University of Victoria, and now a plein air painter. Glad I did them them in that order.
