Talent, discipline, craft, inspiration, vision – they so seldom come together at the same time.  Hoping that they will coincide beautifully at times, I keep working at the only two variables I can control – craft and discipline.  I’ve painted some wonderful creations from uninspiring commissions, and I’ve ended up with embarrassing messes straight from my own heart.

I used to know what it was I was trying to do.  Now I just try and paint – it’s the only way I learn about painting.  It often boils down to a rhythm that I feel at home with.  It’s a constant preparation for being ready when inspiration smiles.

Let’s be straight about it – I sell my paintings for money.  My family needs that.  I’m a working artist – that’s the nature of human existence, and I ask my paintings to say no more than that.  It’s about you and I and moments amongst it all that we chance to grasp.

It’s a good job.  The extra reward is as simple as a subtle change in a stroke of blue, shimmering against just the right touch of orange.  And the great reward is as complex as someone else’s tear.

I’m a straightforward, no special effects, watercolorist.  My style?  Like everyone, I try and I’ve tried to paint like those I most admire, sometimes my own students.  Boy do I see a lot I like in other people’s paintings.  But I hold a brush differently, I see color differently.  My style is, probably, how much myself gets in the way of lessons I can’t quite learn.