As an artist, I am largely self-taught. For as long as I can remember, I’ve liked to draw and paint. Over the past ten years, I’ve worked very actively at improving my skills as an artist. That’s included lots of practice, as well as two years of study with Dennis Cheaney at the New England Realist Art Center in Boston, Massachusetts. Dennis is a student of Ted Seth Jacobs, one of the great modern realist masters, and I have benefited greatly from his instruction. I currently work mainly in oil and egg tempera, as well as drawing with graphite. In my own work, I’m mostly interested in the nature of ordinary things, people, and places. I want my art to be unpretentious and simple, but not simplistic. We’ll see over time how well I achieve that.

Beyond making art, I freely admit that I am an art geek. I am very interested in most kinds of representational visual art. One of my main interests is Renaissance art, as well as the materials and methods of artists in various periods. I’m particularly fond of early Netherlandish art (Robert Campin, Jan van Eyck, Rogier van der Weyden, Hans Memling) and slightly later Italian art (Sandro Botticelli, Giovanni Bellini, Michelangelo Buonarroti, Raphael Sanzio). I’m also a big fan of Albrecht Dürer, Hans Holbein, and Diego Velazquez. I like some 19th century painters, such as James Whistler and John Waterhouse. I love the great illustrators such as Howard Pyle, N.C. Wyeth, and J.C. Leyendecker, and some 20th century realists such as Pietro Annigoni and Andrew Wyeth.

What I do other than art

I live in Auburn, Massachusetts (in the United States) with my wife Kirsten and our son Brendan (born August 2006). I was born and raised in Rhode Island and have also lived in Pennsylvania and New Hampshire.

Art is not my day job. I have a bachelor’s degree, majoring in psychology, from the University of Pennsylvania, and a Master’s degree in psychology from Villanova University. I have worked in clinical treatment settings for the past 20 years. I’ve worked with children, adolescents, and adults who present with developmental disabilities, traumatic brain injuries, psychiatric disorders, and behavioral problems. I now work for a small company called QBS Inc., providing consulting and training  to schools, residential programs, hospitals, rehabilitation centers, nursing facilities, and other places. It’s not the easiest kind of work to do, but every day it feels like I’m helping people who really need it, and that makes it worthwhile to me.