Blog

From a young age, the treasures of the Cleveland Museum of Art, my home museum, built in me an innate appreciation for the sublime.  At that time, I was not drawn to paint or engage in artistic pursuits short of casual drawing. But over the ensuing years, I continued to visit the greatest museums in the World, from the Met to the Louvre, took art history courses in college and enriched my art knowledge through reading art books.  I also immersed myself in the beauty of European cathedrals and the frescoes adorning their walls.  Eventually, the urge to begin painting came and I began on this difficult, but rewarding journey in oil painting. 

I believe that every painter needs to have seen thousands of works by the greatest to have a sense of what is beautiful and technically accomplished.  This way, we know how much in the way of struggle and canvas miles it will take to reach the apex of artistic achievement.  To help along this journey, I have followed the time-honored tradition of painting after the works of master artists, as both a learning tool and to create a source of beautiful paintings for my own walls and those of friends and family.  

My greatest challenge was a recent commission from my wife to paint the Last Supper for our dining room.  I worked several months on this 24 x 48 inch work, parallel to my typical landscape painting work.  The sheer emotion and portentousness of the scene will endure in the human psyche for millennia.  Having this brief communion with one of history’s greatest artists in Leonardo da Vinci is reason enough to paint, and the fact that it can serve as a focal point of our home is an added bonus.  

In future blog posts, I will share more insights on my painting journey, from both a conceptual and technical viewpoint, and across all genres of work that I engage in.