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I was born in Killarney, Manitoba. My father died when I was eight years old. My mother taught in one room schoolhouses, and I lived with her from then on. I joined the army, became a policeman, married, had kids, worked as a miner and a welder and a few other jobs. I went to university and became a teacher myself. I started living farther and farther north - my wife grew up in the NWT, and we moved back up. I've been drawing and painting since I was a kid - my mother was an artist, and she taught me to love art. |
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I did some illustration work in the early seventies, and worked throughout the seventies and early eighties, with pencil crayons, watercolors, pen and ink, stained glass, clay, oil, and acrylic. |
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I paint because I have to. The images crowd my mind, and I need to get them down on canvas, down the right way. Whatever the image demands, that's the medium I'll use. I use a palette knife to work with inks, sometimes. I'm not sure if anybody else does that... I do. It gives the effect I'm going for. |
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I have a strong desire to work with metal, with cement and stone. I want to work with the third dimension, and my work is moving towards that. |
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I've been concentrating recently on landscapes and skyscapes, and I'm starting to focus on portraiture. |
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Whenever I'm working on a piece, I'll find myself thinking about other pieces. I'll figure out how to finish something I'd put aside earlier, I'll come up with new paintings. Even when I'm working with pen and ink, I'll find myself coming up with conclusions to paintings in oil or acrylic. And until I figure out the right way to finish a piece, I won't feel comfortable with it, I won't be finished with it. Other pieces, they just fall off my brush, I'll sit down and I'll paint it and it'll just be right. |
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Art is a very personal experience for me, very private. If I talk about my work, that seems to be where my energy goes, and I'd rather it go into the work itself. |
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