Many many years ago I decided to try my hand at doing western scenes, mostly cowboys and Indians. Back then the term “Indians” was okay. Now I always make an effort to use the term Native Americans. My preparation was to first read up on them, the different tribes and cultures. Read every book on Native Americans in the Aurora Public Library, and then some. Then matched each tribe with the landscape they lived. I was just about ready to begin my Western painting when a local artist told me about the horses they rode. I knew nothing about horses and the only pictures of horses I found were of thoroughbreds standing erect in profile. So I began hunting for riding stables to draw regular, every day horses and ponies. This was so I could paint a horse in any position. I began studying great Western paintings and found the master’s paintings had horses running, jumping, stumbling and almost flying. I settled for grazing in a grassy field and so began my series of local landscapes with an occasional horse or cow, adding a bit of life. My idea of painting cowboys and Indians fell to the wayside as I grew into doing on the spot landscapes. My purpose evolved.
My way of preparing for subjects now developed from those days of preparing for doing Western paintings. Now I am known best for my relaxing female figures. Drawing from life was a great way for me to develop my figurative work . Drawing both clothed figures and nudes helped in getting the right feel into my figures. It helps knowing why there were certain folds in skirts. Convincing the viewer there was a human form beneath a blanket was my reason for going to a sketch group on a cold winter night and sketching a less than “traditionally ideal” perfect figure. Tall, thin, portly - all were important to me. Drawing the other artists was important too.
Hot summer days I sat in my car sketching people in parks, on the street, men working, and kids playing were all part of being the artist I wanted to be. Studied bicyclist to see how legs were when feet were on pedals. Studied girls relaxing on lunch breaks, some modest, while others didn't care how much leg was showing. These drawing sessions all came to mind when dreaming up the next painting. Jordan, Kim, Chenoa and other models were recruited into poses I'd had in my sketch books - sketches drawn in my car at parks up and down the river. Some sketches were good enough to develop into a rough painting, without calling a model in to pose. Some paintings came about when models relaxed from the pose I had them in. More than once a second figure showed up in a painting when the model's break pose fit in. Models would kid me by asking for a real break… forcing me to use photos when I had to.
