Since I began concentrating on painting and drawing 25 years ago my main concern has been figurative art. I have tried to imbue my work with a zest that makes figures as vivid and alive and expressive as possible, sometimes they are done with a dash that attempts to capture the moment. While working, sometimes quickly, I feel that the figure must have a definite verisimilitude, the gesture must be right as an anchor before the work can proceed even in an abstract approach.

The artist Chuck Close once commented that an abstract painting can become decoration on a wall, easily overlooked, but you can’t take your eyes off an improperly drawn or painted figure -- you sense that something is wrong and it is always troublesome.

My work originally concentrated on watercolors, but I quickly took up acrylics as a more expressive medium for figurative work. I also work in tempera, pastel and charcoal, sometimes in combination.

Usually I work on paper or canvas but I also work on multimedia board, a synthetic product that looks like paper but is more like a plastic and breaks rather than tears, it is composed of paper and thermal set epoxy resin.

I also do computer drawings, these are based on work done in a studio from a model. I draw an image on the computer using a mouse, then I print it, usually in color. My computer drawings are definitely labor intensive and require a lot of eye and hand coordination but they have one big advantage: my hands stay clean.

Before taking up painting and drawing full-time I was a reporter for the Baltimore Sun in Baltimore, Moscow, and Washington. During the 32 years I worked for the "Sun" I often rushed through dinner and went to drawing groups at night. I studied with the late Bill Calfee and Patricia Friend.