I have been drawing and sketching wildlife nearly my entire life. Growing up, I was an avid hunter and fisherman, and was in the outdoors all the time getting new ideas. Throughout high school, I was more interested in what I was going to hunt and draw next instead of getting good grades.

 

After my high school and college years, several people encouraged me to paint professionally and enter Ducks Unlimited art competitions. I sold my first painting shortly after high school and continued to paint ducks and geese throughout the late 80's and early 90's. After entering several DU competitions throughout the US, I won the Idaho Ducks Unlimited Sponsor Artist of the Year contest in 1994.

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After numerous years away from the paint brush, I returned to the art world in 2018 and haven't looked back. I am thrilled to be creating works of art focused on wildlife and waterfowl and have extended my interests to also include canine companions and other subjects from the animal kingdom. 

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My acrylic art classes are focused on several things; first is teaching students the basics of acrylic painting by understanding and identifying colors. Getting them familiar with colors takes time but can be very rewarding later on. Next up is showing students the technique of layering the colors using several coats of paint. Layering is crucial with acrylics in order to show depth, shadowing and most importantly realism. In order to achieve realism, I teach students how to create detail and understand which brushes are best to get the most detail out of their paintings.

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I tailor each class around the students' talent level.  I have capped the classes at no more than 4 students to ensure each student gets the one on one teaching that is needed to maximize the class experience for everyone.  Some students enjoy finishing a painting faster and that's ok. Some students love to "dive in" and get super detailed and that is great too. I am here to guide the students and show them the best way to get the most out of their time and abilities while they are able to create a really cool painting.