At the age of 13 my mother mistakenly enrolled me in an oil painting class for adults!  The teacher, a grumpy old Italian guy with very traditional European training was not too thrilled.  I was so disappointed that he finally decided to give me a chance.

"Let's first see what you can do!" he said at our first lesson.  He then flicked a switch on an old projector and an old master's painting appeared on a big white screen.  "This is your first task, paint it as best you can and we'll start from there." 

I painted to the best of my ability.  Although it was no masterpiece he let me stay.  I learned so much from him.! He taught me about imprimatura, alla prima, dead color, underpainting, glazing...etc! I loved it from day 1 and never looked back.  To this day I am blissfully happy when I am surrounded by the sight and smells of turpentine, squashed tubes of paint and stained paint brushes.

I always loved to draw. When it was time to play outside with other children, I would hide papers and pencils in my coat and find a quiet place to draw till I could come inside.  I would draw in my notebooks during class and stay awake at night finishing a drawing.  But as I grew older I wanted to learn more.  Then I heard about classical ateliers in Florence, Italy!  Oh how I dreamed of going there to learn all the secrets of the masters!  But like many of us, school, work, children, responsibilities made it impossible to pursue that wish. To my utter joy, about 10 years ago I discovered the Academy of Realist Art in Toronto!  I traveled back and forth for about 1.5 years to help me reach the next level. My drawing skills in graphite, charcoal and carbon  improved in bounds! Then last year I discovered something "new": colored pencils! To my surprise I learned that today you can purchase artist grade colored pencils loaded with quality pigments.  They can be wax or oil based, mixed with mediums, blended and burnished to create a beautiful pencil painting!  I fell in love with this art form that combines all the beauty of paints and the skills of drawing!

It all starts with a good photo!  Thank goodness for the wonderful photography classes back in the good old days before everything was digital and we learned to develop our photos in a good old darkroom!  Would I go back? Never!  I love digital photography and software way too much but I'm glad I got a good solid background way back when...

This collection is a place for me to showcase my favorite images that will probably never find their way to a drawing or painting mainly because they do not correspond to my main subject of interest, people.