Artists Biography

   I was born in Kingston, Ontario, Canada. My dads side of the family immigrated from Ireland to Canada in 1819 .That means this year 2019 my family has lived in Canada for 200 years.  Anyway, I was raised with strong values having always had artistic influence in my life.  My education began living overseas. I attended a British school during my families 4 years living abroad before moving to Manitoba, then back to Ontario. I discovered at a young age my talent in visual arts painting and creating.  I  worked extraordinarily hard to build my career in the arts, I started working full time at the age of 17 after leaving highschool. I have a technical diploma in LAN Administration and CSAO Certified. In 2005 I decided to pursue my art career on a full time basis I never looked back. It takes time to create a body of work to show, now years later I've have created several series of work which took on special meaning. In 2008 I independently began a series of painting of the Dumoine River in Quebec, then in 2009 began working collaboratively with several groups to promote some of my work and in efforts to assist in raising awareness of the Dumoine River, the last undammed wild river in southern Quebec. Upon completion of that series, my ideas broadened I began to look for new ways to grow my career and expand my artistic portfolio. My inspiration comes from finding meaning in the areas or landscape that I paint, behind every work of art is a lot of intellectual thought, thus to say, its not just a pretty picture.  2012 started as a successful year after some painting excursions Ontario Tourism offered to help with some promotion of some of my work and collaborative partnerships, however in 2012 family took priority and I put my art career on the back burner to help my dad recover from triple bypass surgery, and lost that opportunity. Although a video of my experience I recorded and was professionally edited by a video production company then was presented at the Toronto outdoor adventure show in 2013, I hear it was well received.  In some areas of employment its understood what compassionate care is, however in the world of the self employed, little compassion exists. Moving forward...

Where I came from;

While painting and creating is natural to me, other things are not, painting is natural to me. I don't draw and seldom paint plein air.  Sometimes I may do a quick sketch on the canvas, like the horizon line or where the landmark features of my painting will go then I just start painting although I have probably put several weeks of intellectual thought into what I am putting to canvas. Water is my favorite subject, its natural to me, I feel water, water is not linear, it has a flow. I'm also water sign, not sure that has anything to do with it, most of my work has some element of water. Artists who had influence on me during my mothers painting career told me I am what is referred to as a colourist and I have found that to be true all these years later. I devoted several years to working on several series of paintings. I thought deeply about my subjects, this  gave me a strong connection to what I was painting. I have work in private, public, corporate, and National collections, including - City Of Ottawa Art Collection, The Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society, and Canadian War Museum.

Major solo exhibits include - Forêt-la-Blanche Ecological Reserve, Ottawa International Airport , and the Canadian Museum of Nature.

 My artwork is deeply personal.

 Though my artwork I hope to inspire your desire to preserve our landscapes and natural heritage for generations to come.

Time, like most things is required to create truly original pieces of artwork. In 2016 after resettling into a new home I began to restart my art career after 3 years of a hiatus.

This is when the majority of all my artwork was stolen, since then most of my time, when I have it is devoted to the retrieval of my work that was stolen and raising awareness of the toll art theft has on our society.

 I'm a self taught artist, not competitive by nature. I painted and created becasue it's what is most natural to me, it made me feel I had contributed in a positive way. Why do a degree in art history if there is no art to keep record of are you going to spend your money to do a degree in fine arts if what you create means nothing. Is it only the tragic sad story of the artist that sells, if that's the way it is, if so I don't want to be a artist, the people who stole my livelihood, don't deserve any part in my story. My art was about beauty and conservation not criminals and vengence. 

Artwork evokes emotions, and those emotions are completely individual, it is up to the viewer to decide what they see and how that image makes them feel.

What you see and feel is not necessarily the thoughts of the artist who created the work. ( that would be me)

I never thought it was about how you paint, I thought it was about did you paint something that made a mark or is important to our identity and will that picture/painting still be important in 150 years or 1000 years. I hope I did, only time will tell.