about my Paintings

I don’t remember a time when I didn’t draw. For so long, I was absolutely terrified of color, so I worked only in pencil and pen. Somewhere along the line I took a color theory class at a local college and never looked back. I taught myself how to use an airbrush so well, I once had to interrupt a professional photographer at a gallery show, two minutes into his complementing my photographic skill, to tell him it was a painting.

Trouble was, I really hated photorealism as a painting style, but as a self-taught airbrusher I had convinced myself I couldn’t think of myself as an artist until I could do that. Thank the gods above, however many there may be, for digital painting software. Now, I have absolute control of both photorealism and painterly styles. I’m even able to create multiple versions of any piece, or change composition—and even add more canvas—at any point the process. That freedom from the lurking paralysis of the fear of overworking, or outright ruining, a traditional painting has allowed me to finally achieve exactly the result I want from any piece. With the absence of that fear, the process of painting has become less of a struggle and more of a playground.