Painting Process

My paintings involve me in two simultaneous modes of working during the painting process. First, I find myself looking and recording sensations which strike my eye. As a follower of the painter Paul Cézanne, I value highly the transmission of accurate visual sensations to the canvas. Whether I am painting a still life object or a human figure, I grasp onto visual information as eagerly as I can. Here my aim is to use this visual data to create light, form, and space with color.

Second, running parallel to recording visual facts, my personal feelings for subjects roam freely in tandem with my eye. Formula has no place in making my images. I may begin a work with a sketchy outline in my mind's eye, but most often the work is swept along by the painting process itself.

During the painting process, issues of two-dimensional design enter. The process of shifting imagery around on the canvas is one I engage in much as a text editor shifts around blocks of words on a page layout. I believe my habit of patching together images on a canvas derives from Cubist methods of earlier Cézanne followers, Braque and Picasso.

My narrative figure paintings often develop from immersing myself in new environments, real and imaginary. Places and dreams of places. Earlier in my life I lived in Munich, Germany. There I was fascinated by the bustle of city life. The way the city appeared to me a patchwork of exuberance and conventionality sparked my imagination. Some of my more recent paintings brood on the terrible outcomes of wars. My heart breaks for all innocent victims exploited and annihilated by the greed of callous perpetrators. Should there really be wages earned from war? The dead can never spend them. The sorrowful lament for those lost to war must be sung to the future. We cannot afford to forget.

I have included a number of working drawings in this site. I love to draw, and many times I attach more significance to a working drawing than to a more finished work derived from it. The initial force of the creative process lies in my drawings. Among these drawings are some done with felt-tip markers. I have worked especially long and hard to appreciate markers as legitimate fine arts tools. Their immediacy makes them excellent for quick drawing and color notation.

My attachment to artists who have helped shape painting throughout history will be apparent. My gratitude to those both dead and living can't be deeply enough expressed.

Some of my earliest visual experiences happened while looking at books. I remember Will and Ariel Durant's Life of Greece on our bookshelves at home. I also remember a thick book on anatomy with vivid color reproductions.

One of my most memorable first acquaintances with paintings was a show of the expressive paintings of E. L. Kirchner at the Pasadena Art Museum in the 1960's. In Germany, I would form strong attachments to the work of Max Beckmann whose paintings mirrored the workings of dysfunctional society.

My years spent at UCLA as an art student were vital to my acquiring technical skills and gaining a deep appreciation of art. My first painting teacher, Les Biller, was dynamic and amusing. He helped lead my way along the path I've since taken. Later, Sam Amato, William Brice, Ray Brown, Richard Diebenkorn, Elliot Elgart, Charles Garabedian, Gordon Nunes, and Jan Stüssy were each helpful guides with their wealth of experience.

The UCLA experience helped to expand my thinking and perceptions as well. There were no formula mandates for picture making. I was encouraged to widely explore and develop my own vision within a very supportive environment. Exploration of media and concepts was the tone of the UCLA Fine Arts curriculum in the 1960's and 1970's. Process of involvement outweighed the making of a commodity. Technique was not taught, but rather introduced by skilled artists.

As a teacher in Southern California for more than 30 years, I am also grateful to my many students for their contributions to the studio experience. There was never a class which didn't surprise me with intelligent and challenging questions as well as unexpected and inventive solutions to class assignments.