There's almost no distance I won't go, almost nothing I won't do, to learn all I can about my subjects to make my paintings of wild animals as accurate and lifelike as possible.
I’ve traveled to Madagascar to survey critically endangered radiated tortoises. I've camped in the Everglades, traveled to Central America and have been all across the US visiting 48 states. I've delighted in it all.
From as far back as I remember, I've loved both wildlife and art. I grew up in the small, rural New Hampshire town of New Ipswich. In my free time I was always either out fishing, searching for turtles and snakes or I was painting. My father was a biology teacher and our home hosted a large menagerie of animals, including a turtle named Heathcliff and two pigeons named Mel and Leroy.
Today things haven’t changed much. I am a professional artist, and I work from a home I share with my wife (to whom I proposed in a field full of buffalo), my tortoise, Eddie, my two dogs Roo and Monte and my snake Ernie.
I feel it's crucial not just to document these marvelous species I paint; it's even more important to me to have a hand in saving them from extinction. Among reptiles alone, 196 species are presently critically endangered. That's why I'm a signature member of Artists for Conservation. That's why I often create artwork specifically to donate proceeds from its sale for conservation--as I recently did for the radiated tortoises I met in Madagascar. I'm grateful to use my talent to not only raise awareness about these gorgeous animals, but help keep them alive on the planet we human newcomers are lucky to share with them.