About Me

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I was born and raised in Brooklyn, N.Y. My educational history is as follows: Long Beach High School, School of Visual Arts, C.W.Post College, M.A. in Humanities, Hofstra University. A two year stint in the U.S.Marine Corps as a illustrator eased my entrance into civilian life as a commercial artist in N.Y.C. My teaching career of twenty five years began at the State University in Farmingdale, N.Y. and ended as a Professor of Fine Arts at Herkimer County Community College, where I was awarded The New York State Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Teaching. I now paint full time in Portland Maine where I live with my wife Sharon. I paint all subjects from portraits to landscapes but I especially love painting the sea. Last year marked the end of forty straight years of teaching workshops on Monhegan Island, Maine, I now conduct three day classes in Kennebunkport every spring and fall. My work can be seen at The Wiscasset Bay Gallery, Wiscasset, Me., Dowling Walsh Gallery, Rockland, Me.,Camden Falls Gallery, Caamden, Me. and here in my studio in Portland. I am a signature member of The American Watercolor Society and the New York State Watercolor Society.

Saturday, January 22, 2011

My World of Watercolors and Oils

   Welcome to my world of watercolor and oil paintings.  Having taught hundreds of workshops, a fancy name for classes without grades, I suppose the most common question from my students is which medium do I prefer? My answer is the one I'm presently working with. That answer is often met with awed responses by my students, which of course, my ego mutually responds by it's, hopefully undetected enlargement. No! Seriously, some of my students and colleagues are curious as to how and why I easily change from one to the other since the approach and procedures to each are so different. Frankly, I can't come up with a satisfactory answer except perhaps that, when I started teaching painting in college I would always do a demonstration in the medium being taught at the time. Lecturing to students on how to paint is like teaching sailing in a row boat.
   I'm new to blogging, but as I understand it I'll be able to show you many times during the course of a week both watercolor and oil paintings in progress, from the first stroke of paint, in the case of watercolor, on paper and in oils, on canvas or canvas board. It's important to keep in mind that although the processes are quite different the basic principles involved in making a successful and powerful painting are the same. Since I paint in a traditional manner those principles are accurate drawing, following the rules of perspective, design of the subject, attention to simple value patterns and finally color harmony.

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