Art is my lifestyle; a way of living.

Painting for me is not a process of creating something to sell but rather a way of watching myself develop as an artist. Every step, from the minute decisions in colour, form and line, are all part of the art. Technique may be developed to describe what I want to say, but I don’t consciously develop a technique to improve the skies or to paint trees better. Technique is only a vehicle used to express the art.

I paint from within, interpreting emotions rather than creating an image of something that already exists. I can never answer the question “What do you paint?”, "Are you an impressionist, expressionist, realist, etc?” I know that my art is a form of realism combined with abstraction. If I knew how to describe my innermost thoughts in words, I would not need to paint.

My art gives me a means of providing order to a very insane world. Painting gives me values and reminds me to get back to honesty and the intuitive sense within; to interpret what I believe and to develop spiritually.

Art for me gives reasons to look for something greater of myself, within myself. To use a quote from John Sloan, a great American painter and instructor, “I am like Picasso, just gnawing on a bone.” I know this sounds like a philosophical cliché, but I use it to create a visual image of what I am. Everyday I enter my studio and putter and play with my materials, looking for images that relate to myself. My painting process has come to the point of worrying the paint into submission, just in the same way a dog gnaws on a bone.

Art is life; if you have not really lived life, your art cannot clearly express your own visions. A master is someone who has completed the process of life. For several years now, I have been seriously painting full-time and I have not even scratched the surface of what I paint; the master for me will come only after decades of diligent work.

Long ago, I decided to teach myself about art and painting. My days are filled with reading, painting and looking at art; observing everything around me; consuming all of the visual input. The end result is to become a master.In essence, I am the traditional painter.