In The Beginning…

Everything has a beginning, and my art career is no exception.

I remember drawing endlessly since I could hold a crayon. In my teens, I decided to try pen and ink - mainly because my older brother did oil paintings and I wanted to do art differently. I also reasoned that pen-and-ink drawings could be reproduced more easily and at a lower cost, enabling me to market my work more effectively.

I began by doing drawings for family and friends. Like a pebble thrown into a small pond, the rings quickly spread, and it wasn’t long until others were interested. In my early twenties, I was a full-time artist with my work being sold in galleries and frame shops across British Columbia. Private and corporate collectors kept me very busy, producing originals and limited-edition prints.

My fine art career dovetailed with commercial art from the beginning, and in 1984, I accepted my first historical mural commission in Chemainus, British Columbia. One mural led to another, and before long, I was travelling across Canada and the United States, painting giant walls featuring local history. One hundred and twenty-five murals later I was tired of the endless travel and high scaffold work. And I discovered the wonderful world of theme parks. In the early 1990s, Janis and I formed Imagination Corporation to allow us to take on monumental themed projects. We started small in British Columbia, but it wasn’t long until our fame grew as big as the imaginative projects. Our work is now around the world with work in Canada, the USA, Dubai and the Caribbean. These days, our son, Peter, has taken over the helm of the creative team with me playing a supportive role, still having as much fun as ever.

The drawing never stopped as every imaginative project needed concept art to present to our clients, but because we were so busy, there was no time to produce fine art for private collectors or galleries.

But the itch to do fine art has never gone away, and I have longed for the day when I could do art just for the love of it once again. A while back, as I thought about creating some pen and ink drawings, I broke out some dusty art supplies and gave it a go. In only a few minutes, I realized I had long moved on from the traditional pen and messy inks. I much preferred digitally drawing on my iPad. The drawing mechanics were the same, but I could easily zoom in on details. Corrections and redos were easy. The drawback was that there would be no ‘original’ art in the traditional sense. After much thought, I came up with a unique solution. I would use a laser to create an extremely limited ‘print’, precisely burned into wood panels, which I would hand colour, sign and number. Each would be unique and hopefully be sought after by collectors. This new adventure is now underway. Stay tuned…