As a Canadian author and artist, my involvement in the arts spans five decades. I have served on art councils, boards and juries, and I have been the Director/Curator of a public gallery in Ontario. My artwork and artist’s books have been exhibited in Canada and internationally, and I have had over fifty solo exhibitions. Experimentation and innovation have driven my evolution as an artist. The majority of my printmaking is not done with a traditional press, and when I paint, I rarely use brushes. Painting the feeling of my subjects, rather than painting representationally, is foundational to my artistic expression.
My exploration of combining painting and writing began forty years ago, and continues today. In the 1980s, I spent two years interviewing Niagara region farmers regarding the architecture, history and usage of their fruit barns, which were rapidly disappearing from the landscape. It was important to me to preserve them in my own way. My research was published in book format along with my twenty-four fruit barn paintings.
Since then I have written and illustrated two children’s books and a novel, which I am planning to have published.
- A Raven’s Day, is based on my experience of living in Webequie, a remote First Nation community in Northern Ontario, for two years.
- Snap, A Cautionary Tail, is based on my personal experience of the voracious Fort McMurray fire of 2016, and the ramifications the oil patch has on the environment.
I Am Not a Landscape, my first novel, expresses the profound joy of unfettered creativity and the courage it takes to share it. While my artistic history informs this novel, it is not an autobiography. Told from an artist’s point of view, it is a fictional human interest story that explores the life of an artist whose personal challenges echo his creative struggles. Like a landscape exposed to persistent forces over time, my protagonist’s creativity, identity and spirit are subject to erosion.
Today, I write and create from my home in Northern Ontario, where the people and the landscape inspire me.
