Artistically, I am what you would call a representational artist - - - ie., an artist who paints in a realistic style. My medium of choice is oils, although I have also worked with watercolors and pastels.

I grew up in the Midwest, and received both my undergraduate and graduate degrees from DePaul and from Loyola Universities. Although I chose a professional business career, since my childhood, I always had a strong interest in both art and in the history of the American West. Fortunately, as an organizational consultant to large corporations, most with diverse geographical operations, I frequently had to travel on business to numerous business facilities located across the wide landscape of the American West.

Because the nature of my business work involved broad strategic complex projects, for mental relaxation, I often carried with me copies of early fur trader and settler diaries, small compact art supplies, and a camera. When not working, I used every opportunity I had to visit and photograph many historical places. I spent many evenings in small motels in remote locations across the West and this provided me the opportunity to relax, read, and practice drawing and painting as a pleasant diversion.

I have been very fortunate over the years to have visited so many famous historic places in the West. I have hiked portions of the Oregon, Chisholm, Bozeman, and Santa Fe Trails. I have visited many of the places where Lewis & Clark camped on their journey to the Pacific. I have visited many of the Southwestern Pueblo sites as well as old military forts. I have attended rodeos, cattle-drives, and pow-wow’s. For over thirty years, I have collected and read hundreds of copies of journals and personal diaries of settlers, cowboys, ranchers, soldiers, and others who traveled over the broad western landscape during the settling of the west. Over thirty years of such experiences provide the foundation for the stories that sometimes get depicted in my art.

My career kept me very busy, however, so that artistically, I am very much self-taught. To my mother, I owe a great debt for spending time with me as a child and teaching me how to do simple drawings. Much of the love for the American West comes from my father who spent many hours with me as we watched early TV heros such as Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, Johnny Mack Brown, and the Cisco Kid. Art was really more of a pleasant diversion during my growing years - - - I never really conceived of myself as becoming an artist. Later on, when I started to get more serious about developing my art skills, I was influenced by the artwork of such well known representational painters as Charles Russell, Frederick Remington, Owen Gromme, John Clymer, Howard Terpning, and William Acheff.

Over the past twenty-five years, my art philosophy has evolved and I think can be best expressed in the following three guidelines I use:

First, I only paint what I know. My artwork is based on places and things I have experienced. The subject of what I paint is well researched.

Second, my art tells a story. I never paint just a generic picture and slap a name onto the painting. The subjects, people, places depicted on my canvas is based on some historic element - - - - most often of an incident of the American West.

Third, what I decide to paint must move me emotionally. I never have nor will I ever just do a painting of something with the sole idea of whether or not it “will sell in the marketplace.” Each work of art can stand on its own feet, is unique, and one-of-a-kind.

As to the future, on reflection I have discovered that I have a fondness for western still lifes, and will likely do more. I have also thought about moving into doing some western paintings involving the pioneer experiences of travel on the Oregon Trail. But, only time will tell where my artistic trail will lead me.

Past & Current Memberships

Oil Painters of America (OPA)

National Association of Fine Artists (NAFA)

Lewis & Clark Historical Foundation

The Westerners International

LaGrange Art League

Chicago Artists Coalition

Moraine Valley Artists Coalition

Western Artists of America

National Wildlife Federation

Nature Conservancy

Greenpeace

Favorite Art Shows

Oil Painters of America (National & Regional)

Art in the Barn (Barrington Arts League)

LaGrange Art Show

Town Square Fine Art Show

Old Town Art Fair

Hinsdale Fine Art Show

Oak Brook Invitational Art show