Breck shampoo got me off cowboys and onto pretty girls. Ward Bond of Wagon Train was one of the first TV Western stars I picked to do a portrait of, I was probably 10 at the time. All the Warner Brother's Westerns gave me plenty to draw. Some I drew directly off our old Zenith TV. Later a bubble gum company put out cards on TV stars. I used these cards to draw from. Later I discovered Breck Shampoo ads in my sister's Glamour magazines and I gave up cowboys for pretty girls and I've been working with pretty girls ever since.

I love doing paintings of beautiful women and pretty girls, but now I want more than a pretty face. Even with dramatic lighting faces aren't enough. I prefer doing full figure paintings set in landscapes or at rest in an interior giving me the challenge to build still-lifes around them with multiple light sources. Paintings with multiple figures are my favorite subjects to do. Toss in an imaginary setting and I am a happy camper. Add a wonderful model and I can easily work 10 hours a day, which I usually do. Every once and a while a model reminds me to take a break and exercise a bit. Jordan knows not to ask any serious questions of me while painting because I always say yes.

Jordan has become my studio manager, she keeps track of paintings and makes sure paintings are shipped out on time and framed well. She keeps me up on answering collectors inquires, her friend Adrienne has taken on many of these duties since little Josephine has come into Jordan's life. Jordan and Adrienne keep me free to do what I love and that is painting. I love these two ladies and feel blessed to have them in my life. I'm surrounded by great friends.

Climbing up into the hay loft was an adventure as a kid, a place to turn my imagination loose. One minute I was defending Fort Apache, the next minute building castle walls with the hay bales. When all battles were won, the mice and owls that had watched me defeat the evil knights and the Black Foot Indians became my models. Bread crumbs from the hard roll mom sent me out with kept the mice happy. Sketching wildlife was becoming my passion. Mice were my lions and grizzly bears while the barn swallows were my hawks and eagles.

Today at 70 I still see barns as places of wonder. Climbing into hay lofts is out of the question but sketching the lions and bald eagles is still an option for me. Chicken and pigs are my subjects these days along with cows and sheep. All feed into my farm scenes. Traveling around the country painting different scenes of country life, I see how the same we are and how different we are. Family farms are disappearing. These little pictures of America touch my heart and inspire me to capture more than simply a barn and a few cows. Family traditions, a way of life, is what I see. Aunts, uncles, and cousins gathering for harvesting and picnicking under the elms after a day of hard work. Cool pink Kool-aid and potato salad, tablecloths that just won't stay down. Apple pie made with apples from the orchard. All this comes to me as I pause to take in a barn in Missouri and another in Iowa. Pig manure sends out the aroma of country life. Autumn barn dances, uncle Melvin calling out the steps, Aunt Elizabeth in her petty coats and white dress with bright red polk-a-dots showing how square dancing is done. Cousin Maryann climbing up into the hay loft with her boyfriend. Cows waiting outside to take it all in, their big black eyes seeing Aunt Elizabeth in a whole new light. All these memories pass through my mind as I paint out on the spot.