My art career started quite by accident. I owned a company and hired an ad agency to help me with promotion. Part of the job required them to take advertising photos of our building and our workers. When I saw the photos I was very disappointed and told the agency how I felt. It was suggested that I take the photos myself and show the agency photographer what I wanted. I took the photos and my partner and I decided that they were just what we wanted and used them in our ad campaign. Shortly thereafter we sold the business and the ad agency asked me if I wanted to work for them. Thinking it would be fun and challenging I began my career as a photographer.
After a number of industrial jobs I was offered a commercial photo shoot for a clothing designer and thought that would be fun as well. During that time I started wildlife photography for relaxation and to my surprise and delight these photos started selling. For the next few decades I sold wildlife photos, lead wildlife tours and did commercial photography.
In 2008 I was watching a friend painting and thought I would give it a shot. What you find here is my progression as a oil painter. I’ve decided that I will only paint what moves me, and what moves me is painting from my own photos.
In particular this holds true with my wildlife paintings. Not only do I want to paint scenes that I have personally observed, but the photo has to have been taken in the wild, not a captive animal, so that I can feel and portray the emotion of the moment. Recreating that wonderful sensation I felt when a truly wild and free animal is in my personal space.
I hope the emotion I feel, the exhilaration, the feeling of being in the presence of such a beautiful animal comes through to you. I have been lucky enough to have traveled the world over. I love what I do, feel truly blessed that I can do it. I want to spend the rest of my life taking photographs of fantastic animals and places and paint those moments that catch my fancy.