I’ve made a living as fine artist and illustrator based in NYC for over 20 years, exhibited internationally and won awards for painting. I studied at the School of Visual Arts among other institutions, where I learned most of these techniques.
During that time, I worked for artists like Tom Weselmann, (now considered one of the greatest pop artists who ever lived) Marjorie Stryder, and Kevin Barrett, whom I helped fabricate large scale metal sculptures for. Since then, I’ve gone on to show from Galleries in Manhattan like Joseph Nahmad, to international shows like Art Basel.
I write and teach under a under a pseudonym because of a teacher I had back when I was studying in college. He taught at the School Of Visual Arts for decades and throughout that time he had a strict policy of never showing his students his own work. (This was all the way back in 1995, so it wasn’t as simple as googling his name to see a list of his paintings). His philosophy, which I have chosen to adopt, was that showing your students your work stifles them creatively and they’ll likely just end up making paintings that look like yours. And let me tell you, he was right. I saw plenty of students coming out of very expensive classrooms producing carbon copies of their teachers work- and that’s the last thing I want to achieve from creating this class. I want to give you the tools to have complete creative freedom to paint and express yourself, without giving up from frustration like so many before us. What I teach you in this class can be applied to EVERY painting style, not just realism. The techniques, palettes, brushes, color theories, etc are universal and can be applied to achieve whatever painting style you desire- and I urge you to find your own!