How long have you been creating?

I started painting watercolours in 1976 after graduating as an engineer and starting my first engineering job. The desire to do this seemed to come from nowhere. I now realize it was a needed escape from all the left-brain activity involved in my job at that time. I continued painting part-time until 2002 when I returned to it nearly full time with a renewed desire to paint. I have, however, in different ways (music, photography, woodworking) been involved in creative activities all my life.

What is your media of choice?

My favourite media has always been watercolour, but recently I have been enjoying pastels and combining them with watercolour or transparent acrylic. The colours can be very exciting using this approach.

What are your motivations for creating?

These days, people are bombarded by an incredible number of images every day - Internet, TV, advertising, movies - all of this overloads our senses. So, when someone does take the time to view my work and especially provide some comment, this is to me is what it is all about - motivation enough to keep on painting. Aside from this, I'm motivated by the scenery where I live - the Bay of Fundy, the Saint John and Kennebecasis Rivers, and the islands, harbours and people of the Maritimes.

What other artists or movements inform your work?

Originally I admired the High Realism movement particularly during the 1970's but now appreciate Surrealism and the Impressionists much more. I now believe that to excite the viewer's thoughts and imagination you must go beyond the technical ability displayed by high realism to provide the viewer with a further degree of insight into the subject. You want them to find something new every time they view it, and especially not say "wow, that looks just like a photo".

What do you find visually stimulating right now?

The abstract shapes and patterns formed by looking closely at the landscape and individual objects. I'm particularly drawn to reflections and patterns formed in water. These have infinite variety when you throw in the effects of various wave forms, wind, and the influence of water depth and transparency. To do this justice in painting you have to spend a lot of time observing and studying these subjects. I think most people hardly give these subjects a second glance.

What's the last book you read?

Oryx and Crake, by Margaret Atwood. There always seems to be something compelling about apocalyptic stories. Perhaps some of us enjoy envisioning the unraveling of the nonsense routinely served up by our society. In visual art I think the Surrealists have cornered the market on apocalyptic visions.

Tell us a little about your recent award from the Canadian Society of Painters in Watercolour; and congratulations!

The Canadian Society of Painters in Watercolour (CSPWC) is the only national watercolour society in Canada. It was formed by two members of the Canadian Group of Seven (A.J Casson and Franklin Carmichael) along with 10 other artists in 1925 and so has been in continuous existence for 80 years. Each year they hold a national juried show called "Open Water". Last year I sent an entry into the show for the first time. I was thrilled to have my painting "Surfacing" accepted to the show, then felt honored when I was notified a few weeks later that the painting was awarded the H.K. Holbein Award for Innovation in Watercolour. Surfacing can be viewed on several different levels depending on your outlook. If you take it as realism then it portrays the wave-distorted view of a lighthouse reflected in water - the view you would get if you were surfacing from a dive by looking up from underwater. If you take it with a surrealistic viewpoint, then to me it portrays a dream state in which one dream morphs smoothly into another, linking a bit of eroticism with lighthouses.

What would you like your fellow EBSQ artists and our collectors to know about you and/or your work?

Having dealt with engineering projects most of my working life, I am now committed to the creation of visual art in which, hopefully, others can see something beyond the surface. Nothing is more rewarding to me than having people give me feedback about their interpretation of my work. This is particularly so when they see things that go beyond my original intentions.