My artist statement is on the first page, but many people want to know my methodology. For landscapes, I work from photographs, and often significantly embellish with color and/or lighting. For portraits, I also work from photos, and for anyone interested in commissioning a portrait, I’m very user friendly. See below.

In general, I only paint that which is worth painting. In other words, composition, lighting, and subject matter are of highest priority, and I will not touch the canvas without loving my reference material first. Reference material, almost always photographic, should be arresting enough to at least momentarily cause the viewer to exist entirely within the image. If this is the case, a successful painting will in the very least augment the effect of the original image. I do not believe in technique (or style) for the sake of technique, but rather technique and style should be a vehicle for my intent. For example, I may paint the portrait of the president of the Harvard Club with Sargent-like finesse, whereas I might paint….uhhm, maybe I shouldn’t say…with a Lucien Freud-type approach. Because of this, I use a number of techniques and styles for my portraiture and landscapes.

Regarding portraits. My goal is to make the portrait BE the subject, not just a picture of them. Hence, for each subject, I obtain personal history to develop a concept of who this person is or was (I have a lot of experience doing this as a physician). I obtain photos of the subject, preferably by having the subject sit for a photo session with myself, but I have produced several outstanding post-humus portraits based on collections of photographs (see “Ramzi Cotran” and “Felix”.

I make a concept drawing and take care to incorporate the sitter’s personal traits – background elements, clothing, lighting, and pose (see “Christopher Crum”). My priority is to produce portraits that give the viewer a sense that the subject is present in the room with them. To do this, I manipulate the lighting to bring volume and hence, “presence” to the sitter. I build a composition from the photographic reference in Photoshop, manipulating any necessary elements (lighting, objects, color, etc.) to make

the composition consistent with the original concept. Next, I produce numerous study pencil and oil sketches before painting the final canvas.

Painting the final canvas involves toning a gesso’d canvas, painting a monochromatic, often with bright colors, under-painting, then finalizing with translucent color glazes and opaque color. The process is summarized below:

>> collect personal information and photographs
>> concept drawing
>> construct composition in Photoshop (to fit concept)
>> painting and drawing sketches
>> final oil painting

Generally, the sitter only needs to sit once, either in my studio, or at a location familiar to the subject, for about an hour, while I take photographs.