After a 40-year career in architecture, I began painting alongside my wife Linda in 2010 who is an artist. Her preferred medium is watercolor which I adopted. My drawing skills and aesthetics come from my experience as an architect, but most art in general, I learned from Linda. I use photographs that I have taken for reference and inspiration. My paintings are usually representational and often include geometric shapes, hard lines and solid colors. My primary medium is watercolor but I often include the use of pen and ink. Over the years I’ve noticed that I tend to paint only a few types of subjects – landscapes, buildings, buildings in landscapes, and baseball. I think I’m attracted to these subjects because of the variety of color and composition they offer (and because I like baseball). Composition is especially important to me and I pay special attention to it when I take the photograph initially and again when I select the part of the photo to paint.
Even though painting can be frustrating, I enjoy the process. There is a meditative comfort in the concentration and focus that painting requires. I have to look closely at and concentrate on the subject in order to paint it, and since the subject is from my own experience (usually traveling or attending events) I have a connection to it and remember the event and my feelings and I see details I didn’t notice before. In a sense, painting allows me to relive the experience in a much more concentrated way which is one reason I enjoy it.
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