My childhood was spent on a farm in Manitoba, on the eastern edge of the Great Plains of Canada. A farm upbringing, for better or worse, forms my fundamental life view. Life in the outdoors, surrounded by nature, has led me to value nature for its own sake. It has allowed me to sense a depth to the natural world beyond what is seen on the surface. I am perpetually preoccupied with exploring that hidden domain, in both the world and in art.
I have always been a hunter. My earliest memories are of following my father in the hunting field, and I continue to hunt as an adult. It is an immersion in that great mystery found only in nature. Over the years, my interests have migrated increasingly toward gamebird hunting over dogs. Dogs, standing half in the human world and half in the natural world with senses attuned to both, become a conduit to the wonder and mystery of nature.
Hilda and I now live in southern Alberta, on the other edge of the Great Plains, and on the other edge of life. I have been fortunate to have seen something of the world and brought home some of what I have seen. I have been equally fortunate to have shared my life with many great gundogs and have learned from them something of that unknown world just beyond our own senses. In my art I try to communicate what lies just beyond what can be seen. A canine portrait should be more than a memorial to a beloved animal. It should also be a piece of fine art. I try to illuminate each dog's knowledge and character, and I search for the relationship between a dog and its human.
I hope you enjoy my paintings and I hope you can see something of yourself in them.