ABOUT THE ARTIST

I was born in Weatherford , Texas , and raised primarily in St. Louis , Missouri . After graduating from high school I spent the summer of 1971 sketching portraits from life six days a week at a modern day carnival in St. Louis with a handful of other artists. Performing under those circumstances rapidly improved my drawing skills. In 1976 while attending The University of Kansas, those portrait skills were put to good use as a forensic sketch artist for the Lawrence Kansas Police Department. One particular sketch aided a team of detectives to make an arrest of a serial rapist in Nebraska soon after.

After receiving my Bachelor of Fine Arts, I returned to Texas where I spent 25 years as a freelance illustrator in Dallas . As a painter I was largely self taught, however, I had many years of commercial art experience, so my development as an oil painter was fueled by decades of sketching faces, as well as working with the figure. In 2005 I returned to my fine art roots, dedicating myself exclusively to my studio practice.

Now the question remains, why Longhorns?

Having lived in the suburbs most of my life, I had become visually immune to my surroundings until I took notice of some bovines grazing in an oddly placed pasture near my home. They were there for years but it had not registered in my consciousness until a routine drive down Dove Road in Southlake , Texas . In fact, the pasture was not oddly placed, but the ensuing housing developments were. McMansions were everywhere amid huge imposing electrical towers and the only relief was a small herd of indifferent cows with horns. These gentle longhorns were living on the last remaining pasture and I was able to climb over the fence and investigate.

Here, the impact of houses with golf course lawns were held back in this tiny place where cows grazed, and rested as they always have. I discovered an oasis. The primitive rhythm of time in that pasture had found its way back to my painting studio and onto the canvas.

I have since left the suburbs to paint in a remote spot in the mountains of West Texas . Now, when I look out the window, I see white wing doves, wild turkey and deer competing for the sunflower seeds I throw out daily. My rescue mixed breed dog from the Louisiana hurricanes prefers to lounge outside while my pug sleeps under my work table.

It is quiet here, the air is clean and my days are filled with possibility.