Whenever a warm day breaks through a string of cold ones—whether in the spring or the fall—I call it a "Water Buffalo Day." It's a tribute to a perfect day trip I took back in the spring of 1977. My art school, The Corcoran School of Art, went to the National Zoo. It...

The Canvas Agenda This agenda is all about respecting the physical surface. The artist isn't just applying paint—they're considering the medium's properties and how it interacts with the canvas. For example, a heavy buildup of acrylic paint will produce a plastic feel...

In life drawing class, art students quickly learn a fundamental principle: "There are no straight lines in nature, nor on the human body." This simple observation reveals a deep connection between humans and the natural world, forming a crucial foundation for...

Painting is fundamentally about capturing and orchestrating light. While imitating the play of light on an object and its resulting shadow is a basic concern, it's merely a starting point. I prefer to incorporate the light source within my paintings, illuminating...

Composition, Color and Image are the three actions I pursue to create a painting.  Composition is geometry within the playing field, the playing field is the rectangle. Balance and Movement are attained through geometry. Line direction and shape placement move the...

A square is a rectangle, but a rectangle is not necessarily a square. By definition, a square is a quadrilateral with four right angles and four equal sides. A rectangle, on the other hand, is simply a quadrilateral with four right angles. Therefore, all squares fit...