I was very fortunate to grow up in the small artist community of Fairhope, Alabama on the eastern shore of Mobile Bay. My home was and is within walking distance of the Fairhope Arts Center so I began taking painting and drawing classes when I was a preteen. My favorite subjects remain landscapes and wildlife.
I completed a B.A. degree in commercial design and recently retired after 25 years as a commercial artist. Over the years I painted as I had a chance and won several awards for realistic wildlife painting in oils. Now, [
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I was very fortunate to grow up in the small artist community of Fairhope, Alabama on the eastern shore of Mobile Bay. My home was and is within walking distance of the Fairhope Arts Center so I began taking painting and drawing classes when I was a preteen. My favorite subjects remain landscapes and wildlife.
I completed a B.A. degree in commercial design and recently retired after 25 years as a commercial artist. Over the years I painted as I had a chance and won several awards for realistic wildlife painting in oils. Now, I have the freedom and energy to paint more. What a great feeling!
I am an optimistic and upbeat person and my outlook on life is reflected in my subject matter. When I paint an animal it usually looks happy! There is something else in my paintings, however. Sometimes dark and stormy colors show up in my paintings when I don't plan it. A good example of this is "Approaching Storm". I had not intended the stormy weather to be on the horizon. When I look at that painting is tugs at my heart a little. I have watched the Mobile Bay and surrounding area change over the years and it has not always been for the best.
When I was a child, sewage was dumped directly into the Bay to the degree that it was unsafe to swim in the Bay. This is no longer the case and many sea birds including the brown pelican have returned to cleaner waters. Unfortunately, the once great schools of mullet have not returned and now grass beds that are the nursery for our blue crabs, shrimp, fish and oysters are being smothered by silt run-off from construction along the shore.
I sympathize with the shrimpers in Bayou La Batre and Bon Secour who struggle to get a share of the catch missed by commercial fishermen with their miles of gill nets. These same shrimpers miss many weeks of work every season while the waters are closed because foreign cargo ships illegally dump their bilge too close to port and contaminate the oyster and shrimp beds with e-coli.
Wherever you live, you are facing similar environmental issues. I hope that you are able to find solutions and maybe your solutions will help us find our own. In the mean time I am going to live as responsibly as I can and to vote as responsibly as I can and I hope that you will too. [
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