So if my artwork appeals to you, that is my most significant credential.
After retiring from a career of government lawyering and law school teaching, then managing shoreline construction on the Chesapeake Bay, I was inspired by my irresistible grandchildren, whose portraits called out to be painted. So I started, cold, to paint them. Surprisingly soon, this led to solo gallery shows, awards, and selection as an Artist in Residence.
There had been a long lapse between my teen-aged exposure to painting still life in the Chicago studio of Ann Roman, and starting to paint portraits of my grandchildren. Once focused on their portraits, I joined an artists co-op to limber up working from life models, and also attended workshops with Rob Liberace at the Art League in Alexandria, VA. Rob is a generous teacher and recognized master, winning an International Grand Prize in portraiture. So his immediate reaction on first seeing me at an easel in December, 2009, was gratifying. Surprised to learn I had not been painting all my life, he told me: “You can’t not paint!”
Awards
Thus encouraged, I did continue. In 2012, I was awarded a studio as Artist in Residence at Maryland Hall for the Creative Arts in Annapolis, MD. By 2013 my first solo exhibit of 22 portraits, “Seen Around Town,” was shown at the Maryland Federation of Art (MFA). Works in this first solo exhibit received three independent awards, being selected by individual judges from among all works of art shown at the MFA during its 50th anniversary year.
I’ve also been selected by the Arts Council to exhibit at Baltimore-Washington International Airport, and by the Maryland Society of Portrait Painters to exhibit at Quiet Waters Park. My work is regularly chosen for juried regional and national exhibits, including at the Mitchell Gallery and the Maryland Federation of Art. My second solo show in 2015 on the contextual theme “Artistry in the Making” was exhibited at the Martino Gallery of Maryland Hall, with dozens of my drawings also shown in the “Sketches from Life” exhibit that year in Cambridge, MD. My first submission of a commissioned portrait to the prestigious Portrait Society of America was honored in 2015, chosen from over a thousand entries to their national competition. The next years saw a major house move and transitions, with less painting activity. However, during that period I was showcased at a large Arts and Wine Festival, continued to be selected and shown in juried national shows and to run a portrait artists studio. A work of mine was awarded First Place in oil painting by the Kent Island Federation of Art, and the following year another of my portraits was judged “Best in Show” there. In 2024, I was invited to mount a solo exhibition of 35 of my portraits in the lovely Willow Gallery at Quiet Waters Park in Annapolis.