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I sincerely believe that much
of my sixty-eight years of life's experiences, including world
travel, living on two legendary tropical islands and early exposure
to art, have all been contributors to my successful painting career.
The year 2002 was a turning point
and the beginning of my second chance at "life." I retired,
and with my fiancé, Lois Greene, traveled to New Zealand
for a World Masters Swimming Championship competition in which
I placed third. En route home I fulfilled a lifelong dream to
visit several South Seas islands, including Rarotonga. It was
there that we were married
Our next stop was Tahiti; the last
home of the 19th century French post-impressionist artist Paul
Gauguin, whose adventuresome life had always fascinated me. This
visit reawakened my interest in art which began at the knee of
my grandmother as I watched her create many beautiful paintings.
I also spent a good deal of time in my youth at the Detroit Institute
of Art. Later, my international business career allowed me to
spend time visiting the great art museums of the world.
Fearing intimidation of artistic
rules of perspective, balance, color etc. I opted to take brush
in hand, put paint to canvas and invent myself - sans formal lessons.
I have painted more than a hundred original, creative and very
colorful canvasses of tropical scenes influenced by my years in
Jamaica and Hawaii during the 1950's and 1960's, and last twenty
five in South Florida.
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