* All images used with permission. Please do not distribute without first contacting the artist.
In 1996, I attended my first and only class at art school. It was the winter drawing marathon at the New York Studio School for Painting and Sculpture. The drawing marathon entailed drawing from models in a setting for eight hours per day. The duration was two weeks. Graham Nickson was my teacher, he was ruthless. We did 6-8 foot drawings and he would come over and just paint over 4 feet of the piece and tell me to start that spot over and do it right. That instruction was what I needed to proceed. At the Studio School, I learned to focus on every inch of a painting, setting up composition and giving attention to the edges and corners.
The work is still based on my original concept of painting spaces and architecture. The narrative lies in the mind of the viewer, while the imagery and paint manipulation leads the eye.
