personal

education

Have loved realistic art as long as I can remember, as long as I've been able to hold a pencil.

Loved drawing especially after I started to school. Received my first oil paint set for Christmas at about age twelve. Learned foundational skills from Art Instruction Schools.

At two of my places of employment I maintained somewhat of a mini gallery of my pencil caricatures of fellow employees on the indoor walls of the building we worked in.

Have in recent years taught myself to paint with acrylics and have learned to love them for their versatility and ease of clean-up.

I have experimented with various mediums since I became disabled. I've painted oil landscapes and still lifes, watercolors of diverse subjects, oil scenes on Christmas ornaments, pastel portraits and lanscapes (usually am covered with portrait work around the holidays), and even have 6 or 7 murals in churches that I've done in oils. One of the murals is in the church that we attend on the mountain. It is a scene developed from photos that my wife made of Lula Lake Falls which is also on Lookout Mountain. It is 6' x 12' , and it's done in 24” x 36” sections.

My wife and I, along with my sister and brother-in-law attended the 2008 reenactment at Chickamauga. I had asked them to take me there for the sole purpose of making photos of the reenactors for reference material. I have long been fascinated with the history of the Civil War, the sufferings incurred, and the very fact that one of the largest battles of the war was fought here at our doorsteps.

We came away with a wide array of photos. I perused over them for a few months and finally made my first painting of a group of charging Federal calvarymen from these. I kept that on hand until the Christmas holiday season(2009) and then decided to give it to this brother-in-law who took me to the reenactment. My wife and I gave it to him at a restaurant in Chattanooga while we were all four (my sister and her husband and my wife and I) were waiting to be served. He sat the unframed painting down on the bench beside himself to rest there while we ate. And, I was so pleasantly surprised to see all the patrons who came over to take a closer look that I came away inspired to do more Civil War related art.

IV. Thus, I went back through and composed these two pieces from my photo collection.

In the Rock of Chickamauga piece, I also found public domain photos of the two key figures on the internet and reworked the faces of my models to resemble them (or that was at least my intention.)

V. I hope to sell my work on its own merit, and I am a little reluctant to mention my disablities.

However, if anyone sees me they will obviously note that I do have a few challen

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