Statement

I've been fascinated with black and white art all my life. I never had interest in attempting to work in color. I think black and white displays the underlying emotion of an image that color distracts from.
 
I enjoy working on a variety of subjects: from wildlife, portraits and some landscapes. I look for subject matter that is highly charged and have great depth; the challenge for me is not only capture the emotion of a subject but also the intense range of contrast. If you visit my gallery page, take a look at "Red Wolf", you'll see what I mean.
 
I grew up working with graphite pencil as my only tool in art. Upon graduation from high school, I entered in the culinary field by attending the Culinary Institute of America, Hyde Park, NY in 1982. Upon graduation I've worked as an Executive Chef in various parts of the country. I played around with drawing as a hobby and did not take my art seriously until 2004, when I decided to put some serious effort into pencil work.
 
Photorealism is my goal. I've never thought much of abstract or modern art. I suppose that I just figured what was the point of it. What is Photorealism? Photorealism was an international art movement of the late 1960's and 70s that stressed the precise rendering of subject matter, often taken from actual photographs or painted with the aid of slides.  Also known as super realism, the style stressed objectivity and technical proficiency in producing images of photographic clarity, often portraits. So when someone looks at my work and begins to lean in and look more closely and more intently at the details, and makes a comment about it looking "that looks just like a photograph", that's when I know I'm on the right track.
 
I'm primarily self-taught and never took a formal class except in high school. Like most self-taught artists, I learned a great deal from studying other artist's works, as well as a considerable investment in art technical books.
 
My tools are graphite pencil only, although I may experiment with powdered charcoal or graphite for large work areas. I work on 100lb. Bristol, smooth finish and use graphite pencils from 9H to 6B. For very dark areas, I'll use a 7B, 8B, or 9B pencil. Using such fine and hard leads; it's easy to see how one of my works can take thirty to fifty hours to complete over the course of four to six week or longer.
 
My personal philosophy based on my career choices:
 
"If you don't want to be a starving artist, learn how to cook first"