During the process of preparing for an in depth art project, I poured over a countless number of images. These are images of paintings I created during the last one half of my lifetime, nearly 30 years. This was a time consuming, but not unpleasant experience, that brought back visions of various studios, models, travels, colleagues, and classrooms. One truth is now apparent; what has not changed is my passion for realism and beauty through expression on canvas.

During this journey I have visited Russia, Holland, China, Poland, France, Hungary, Czech Republic, and the ever-enticing Italy. After having visited every major museum, and many lesser ones, in all the big cities in these countries, one thing is sure. I am continually drawn to the splendid works of the masters; Rembrandt, Rubens, Vermeer, Hals, Velasquez, and so many with unfamiliar names but none-the-less, genius. The absence of work by women has been a constant frustration but that is another essay. In the early years of my study, I found the ageless work of the masters mesmerizing.

After deciding to return to school for an art degree, I ensconced myself into classes for several years. I discovered that the knowledge I sought was hard to find. It had become old fashioned and passé to pursue traditional art, and was not widely taught in the universities and colleges. But nothing else held my interest. There were some good classes on color theory, composition, and life drawing so I garnered what I could from these. Through the years, my interest in the age-old techniques never has wavered, and I turned a deaf ear to those who scoffed.

Much of my knowledge has come from books, and in later years, studies with the master, David Leffel. Up until then, I had no firm working approach. He taught me how to focus my thoughts and categorize each step of the concept of painting. This was the perfect guidance for which I was searching.

This was the beginning of learning methods of painting that captured my heart so many years before. The actual act of grinding paint, mixing mediums, and priming canvases is deeply gratifying. I know William Merritt Chase was correct when he said, “Painting is the most magnificent profession.” All aspects can be absorbing of the senses, never feeling like work.

During my visit to Holland several years ago, I had a continual and nagging feeling of being there before. Things looked familiar, felt intimate, like I had been a fugitive in another country but now coming home. The people, houses, landscapes, and ordinary scenes gave me solace. Somewhere in another life I have known these things, and they are the matrix of my passion for art that envelops me in today’s world. This is why no modern professor bent on discarding age-old techniques could sway me.

In recent years, I have been bewitched by a second passion: Music. With fervor, through piano lessons, I have studied technique and theory. This has opened a vast and new realm of counterpoint to painting. The similarities are stunning; contrast, harmony, disharmony, soft, loud, dark, are in the endless list of comparisons. It is challenging to incorporate music instruments, sheet music, and music by Bach or Beethoven into a composition. So, again in another way, I am hypnotized by the masters. These techniques and sounds are proven by the test of time. It is not knowledge that represses creativity. Knowledge is the impetus behind the energy which encourages the artistic spirit to grow.