My latest public commission was a new painting for the New Lithgow Library in Augusta, Maine, Stories from the Mezzanine.
I recently completed a new 21 foot mural for Bath, Maine. The theme is the “Spirit of Bath” which of course, wraps around the history of shipbuilding in this City of Ships.
In 2015 I finished mural for the new Kennebec County Courthouse being built in Maine’s capital at Augusta. This piece is 14 x 30 feet, a maritime history of the Kennebec River with people, ships, history…lots of drama. Painting doesn’t get any better.
Over the years I have created many murals. Working big is having the sky for your canvas. However, I have also worked very small, illustrating over 30 books and book covers, painting miniatures, carving block prints, drawing etchings and monotypes. I love making things.
As a young ‘starving artist’, I started out as a sculptor in Guadalajara, Mexico, carving masks, and modeling figures in clay. But I found the lure of the brush too much to resist. And the best advice given to me back then by an old artist was, “Draw, draw, draw.” I have never stopped.
With a pencil or brush in hand I can create worlds within the canvas frame. The figures are my players and the canvas my stage. However, I am no fantasy artist. Reality creates the spark. My eyes open, I find things that need to be in my paintings. I have exhibited in galleries and exhibitions in Maine, Seattle and New York City. As an illustrator I have worked for Hearst Books, William Morrow, Greenwillow Books, Random House and DownEast Books of Maine. And creating sets and playbills for theater is a thrill.