My own love affair with illustration began as it does for most of us, in childhood. My first favorite book was “The Lonely Doll” by Dare Wright. Since I was a lonely, only child until I was nearly eleven years old, Dare Wright’s little Edith became my soul mate. As I peruse my well-loved copy of “The Lonely Doll” today, I am struck by how unusual this book must have been in 1957. The illustrations to my most-beloved story were black and white photographs of an old felt doll and her stuffed bear companions. To consider photography a proper medium for children’s book illustration must have been somewhat revolutionary at the time, and nearly as controversial as is calling illustration, “Art”, today.
I draw distinctions between my own paintings in the following manner: if a painting has been created to accompany or tell a story AND is part of a series intended for publication in book form, the painting is an illustration. If the painting has been created to stand alone as a visual image, it is an original watercolor, aka “art”. Often these watercolors have been inspired by personal experience; other times they are minute details or graphic elaborations drawn from my more ambitious book illustrations.
If you surmise that I consider my book illustration to be the most “serious” work I do, you would be correct. I hope that you will enjoy my most recent illustration projects on my “In Progress” page.
I was thirty-four before I began to make watercolors and illustrations in earnest. After leaving college with a degree in Art History, I served an apprenticeship in hand engraving with The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, and although a portion of my work today still reflects that training in letterforms design, I am ultimately a self-taught painter.
All of my works are originals executed in watercolor with a brush.
