Biography

I am a self-educated artist, having produced art as long as I have been able to hold a pencil or crayon. My mother was my first art instructor. In the first grade I won the ‘Art’ prize as I was the only kid in class depicting objects as holding and casting shadows. In the 1980’s I worked with oils on canvas. At the bidding of my wife, Pamela Seager, I discovered acrylics in 2008 and experimented painting on panels in a bold style achieving images evocative of celestial bodies and cosmic ‘landscapes’. In another departure in the same timeframe, I painted a series of acrylics on canvas featuring lotus flowers set against fields of gold negative space. This series gained insights from traditional Chinese motifs. Lately, I have been painting with watercolors in both representational and abstract styles. Pen and ink are novel to me and the results, so far, are promising.

I have been fortunate to have enjoyed the collaboration with Pamela Seager over thirty-one years. Her support of me and her vast knowledge of the art world remain most significant in my career development.

Painting in a wide variety of styles and with varied materials reinforces my desire to accept commissions. Please feel free to contact me to discuss your project.

In late 2018 I began working with pen, ink and watercolors. The representational images, in ink, exposed me to the reality of the unforgiving nature of a pen nib, overloaded with ink, leaving a blot upon the frame. A humble perch is always a great plateau to stand upon. The watercolors emboldened me to expand upon the abstractions I had enjoyed painting in oil and acrylic. The results are better than I had anticipated.

Past Shows of Artwork

My first advertised show, with an opening reception, was in 2013 at The Film Maker’s Gallery. This show was of new works in the high gloss resin finish on panels of Masonite and wood. The process of mounting a show was eased considerably by my late spouse, Pamela Seager. Her depth of experience in the art world aided me beyond estimation. She taught me how to hang a painting. I will not presume to claim her influence taught me how to hang a show. All the images of my shows are examples of her knowledge and aesthetic sensibility.

I was extremely elated to be one of the artists selected to hang a show at the Long Beach Main Library in downtown Long Beach in 2015. There was no reception, but it is a fond memory, standing adjacent to the installation as the morning rush of people flooded into the library as the doors opened.

The retrospective show at The Breakers, in Long Beach in 2015 remains a high mark, having so many paintings that were created over thirty plus years to augment the body of work that I have created in the last decade. Pamela, again, was the catalyst that encouraged and supported me in pursuit of artistic expression. The work on panels commenced a decade ago when she had contracted to have the hardwood floors refinished. She, at one time in her career, worked with Lee Krasner managing Jackson Pollock’s estate for the gallery she represented. “I want you to paint a ‘Pollock’ on the kitchen floor”, she told me. I opted for a black background and began to paint the kitchen floor, recently sanded hardwood, accordingly. The men refinishing the house floors looked on in disbelief.

This was the first time that I had worked with acrylic paints in an artistic endeavor. The pigments I used were standard house paints, the colors I had custom mixed at the store. The resulting work is the largest painting I have ever attempted and it is signed, ‘Pamela’s Pollock’, dated 24 December 2008. That experience marked the beginning of a bold new departure in painting for me. I added Masonite and wooden panels to my repertoire. I began to paint with fine art acrylics on canvas. I mixed fine art acrylics into house paints and experimented with an array of techniques: moving pigments with compressed air, pallet knives, dilutions, wet-on-wet, brushes, tossing paint, syringes, toothbrushes as my imagination motivated me. A finish of high gloss, initially on the kitchen floor and subsequently, on the panels, achieved with an A/B resin coating was another departure and education process for me. The results are unique, leaving no doubt which is the original. Reproductions of the glossy finish present challenges in photographing. Thankfully, not impossible.

The Long Beach Open Studio tours, which I joined for a number of years, were opportunities for collectors to gain access to artists, and their works, in informal settings and I hope that they remain an outlet for local talents in years to come. This past year was a particularly good one for me as I am now able to reproduce a number of my  paintings. The original paintings are too dear for the LBOS audience, whereas, reproductions are much more affordable.

I have had a piece or two of mine in a vast number of local ‘Collective’ shows. I have a number of works that have not been photographed and look forward to posting them on this site as time progresses.