G: Your work is so detailed, is it tedious to capture this level of detail? E: It is tedious. Every little hair is done one by one there is no magic brush that does one hundred hairs at a time.
G: How long do your paintings take? E: An average sized piece will be two - three weeks, eight hours a day, seven days a week. Bigger, bolder pieces are the better part of five weeks. I am always working. I do all of my own reproductions, I do all of my own framing. G: What gets the creative juices flowing?
Amazon basin, I started to take photos on weekends and in-between volunteering. And when we came back from that trip I was just itching to sit down and continue creating. That is when I started working from my own reference shots and that merger has not stopped since.
E: Getting out there to see these things gives me creative energy. You never know what you will see and what you will experience. When I am doing a body of work series for three-four months you're stretched thin a little bit, but I know the light at the end of the tunnel is grabbing the backpacks and running off to Africa for a month or two. I also always have some funky tunes playing. Could be anything from chill stuff to Def Leopard or ACDC – something with a heartbeat. Even club tunes.
G: Do your paintings mimic your photos?
G: Do you create multiple pieces at a time?
E: They mimic the reference but surpass the photos, which I demand. If I am just mimicking the photo, then why don't I just sell the photo? I am trying to recreate the depth of field that the human eye has that there is no lens on the market that could capture; to recreate 3-dimension in a 2-dimension format. A lot of my clients comment on this - that they just feel drawn into the piece because they can look at any aspect of it, from bottom right hand corner to the top left hand corner and anywhere in-between and see something.
E: When I start a painting, I only work on that painting from start to
G: What is your painting process? E: I go background to foreground and lay out a line compositional drawing of the actual features. I always start on a black background for my paintings and a white background for my pencil works. I always begin monochromatically - black tones, white tones, grey tones and then I start developing in the colour tones as every detail comes forward. The larger I can create a piece the more detail I can go into with it. I will still go inch by inch and add as much detail in that inch on a grand scale as with a smaller scale. My original paintings are done with acrylics on Masonite board. I also work on a drafting style set up so I can move it around, paint upside down, sideways and on an angle.
finish. When I do my pencil works, I might do a couple of works but that is more so for technique that I have to work on a few at the same time.
G: Which median do you prefer? E: Painting, definitely. It is my forte. But I love grey tones; I love black and white photography. When you take away the colour aspects of things you are just dealing with shape and form. The black and whites of pencil works are an enjoyable monotony.
G: What are your price points? E: For pencil works: $1000-$2000 dollars. For introductory level for the paintings, 12x12 pieces, you are looking at $2,000-$2,500 dollars. For average sized pieces $5,000 - $6,000 dollars; and then getting up to $15,000 and higher for grander piece. It is a broad range. G: Where do you like to work? E: I do work in the gallery; it is not just for show. As people are looking over my shoulder I have the ability to answer everyone’s questions as I create. I also have a home based studio where I can easily work, but why not showcase what you can do? >>
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