I have drawn and painted ever since I can remember. Pencil was always my favorite. I spent many hours as a child with a pencil and a piece of typing paper. In my late teens, I began to airbrush images on vans, motorcycle tanks, and T-Shirts. Later, I began creating illustrations for publications, and then on to creating graphics and animation on the computer for various companies/clients. Making a living seems to consume most of my time, but when things get slow or I find I have some extra time on my hands, the canvas seems to have an irresistible pull.
One day a friend of mine, mentioned that he was going out and painting small plein air paintings. I told him I'd like to go along sometime. We set a time in the late spring a few years back and I borrowed an easel and we hit the Texas countryside. We painted 3 small paintings throughout the day and I loved it. It was such a relief to get away from the computer screen and play with color. Now I take my easel with me when ever I travel and paint every chance I get. Since I began to paint those "plein air" paintings, I have also been doing some "studio" paintings from some of the places I have visited. They can be viewed at:
http://www.journeyinoils.com
Why Paint?
I could probably tell you some long rambling about why I paint what I paint, but I'll just sum it up by saying this: I have come to see, from the days of my youth until this present day, that God created the universe and all that it contains. He created awesome beauty and living things for man (men/women) to enjoy. However, man fell into sin in the Garden of Eden. Sin begin to destroy man and the awesome universe God had created. It has become less than it was at creation and man is less than himself. All that remains is but a shadow of the former.
As I try to capture a small piece of the beauty that remains, I find that a painting emerges, with colors and a presence that can only be described as a place of the heart, a place beyond the horizon; a place desired for but yet untouched and unseen. It is a longing for that place in the Garden before the fellowship with God was broken.
I am glad that God has not left man and the universe alone. He sent Christ to die for the sins of man and restore him to fellowship with Himself. That is the story the Bible contains and the story written deep within the universe. That Story's hope can can be felt in the dawning of a new day, in the birth of a child; and, sometimes, it can be seen in the colors an artist sees as he tries to capture on canvas some un-met desire for another place.
