Artists Biography

   I was born in Kingston, Ontario, Canada. My dads side of the family immigrated from Ireland to Canada in 1819 .That means this year 2019 my family has lived in Canada for 200 years.  Anyway, I was raised with strong values having always had artistic influence in my life.  My education began living overseas. I attended a British school during my families 4 years living abroad before moving to Manitoba, then back to Ontario. I discovered at a young age my talent in visual arts painting and creating.  I  worked extraordinarily hard to build my career in the arts, I started working full time at the age of 17 after leaving highschool. I have a technical diploma in LAN Administration and CSAO Certified. In 2005 I decided after saving up and many hard years of work to pursue my art career on a full time basis, knowing it would take time to create a body of work I could show, it was always my goal to get my self in a position where my only focus was my art career. I invested my savings in my home art business.

While painting and creating is natural to me, other things are not, painting is natural to me. Something some people find hard to comprehend is I don't draw. Sometimes I may do a quick sketch on the canvas, like the horizon line or where the landmark features of my painting will go then I just start painting. Water is my favorite subject, its natural to me, I feel water, water is not linear, it has a flow. I'm also water sign, not sure that has anything to do with it,  most of my work has some element of water. Artists who had influence on me during my mothers painting career told me I am what is referred to as a colourist and I have found that to be true all these years later. I devoted several years to working on several series of paintings. I thought deeply about my subjects, this  gave me a strong connection to what I was painting. I have work in private, public, corporate, and National collections, including - City Of Ottawa Art Collection, The Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society, and Canadian War Museum.  Major solo exhibits include - Ottawa International Airport , and the Canadian Museum of Nature.

 My artwork is deeply personal.

 Though my artwork I hope to inspire your desire to preserve our landscapes and natural heritage for generations to come.

Time, like most things is required to create truly original pieces of artwork. I'm a self taught artist. I'm not competative by nature. Never was, my greatest competition was always myself. Painting isn't a sport, I painted and created becasue it's what is most natural to me, it made me feel I had contributed in a postive way. When I had work accepted in to a National Museum that was it, I'd  forever have artwork in a National Museum, no one can take that away. I've had a lot of things taken away from me in my life, to date it was one of two of my proudest moments.  I have been painting since about 5 years of age and I was 42 at that time so it took a bit more than a university degree to hone my creative abilities it about far more than painting. Artwork evokes emotions, and those emotions are completely individual, its not like a book there are no words, it is up to the viewer to decide what they see and how that image makes them feel. What you see and feel is not necessarily the thoughts of the artist who created the work. ( that would be me)

I never thought it was about how you paint, I thought it was about did you paint something that made a mark or is important to our identity and will that picture will still be important in 150 years or 1000 years. One thing I am assured of is, my work will out live me and you, it will always exist and my signature will always be on it. I believe artists give, they give to society, they give to our culture and deserve to be paid not taken from. A real artist doesn't have to take from someone else. When the value of my art is trivialized by people who don't know me, in fact they are trivializing the value of my life and what is important to me. What did you have to do to be who you are, what is important to you, did you work harder than me, how do you know, how much are you worth. Is worth about money, did you do it for someone else or did you do it for yourself.

Maybe, its more about being a moral human being than being a artist.