I was born in Raleigh, NC in 1949, and my earliest memories are of old Ford Coupes with loud, unmuffled flathead engines roaring around the quarter mile oval at the old Raleigh Speedway in the mid 1950's. That was the point of no return, so to speak. The sound, the colors, the spectacle of it all had me hooked for life.
So, from the age of 6, I have been a car geek, a gearhead - if you are here at my site, chances are you are sharing the same affliction to some degree. With that early exposure to cars as something other than transportation appliances, I began spending all of my allowance on car magazines that encouraged my interest in any/everything with wheels, expanding my interests to include Hot Rods, Custom Cars, Sports Cars, Gran Prix, Indy and Sprint Cars... in short, I like 'em all.
And naturally, from that early age onward, all my childhood drawing efforts involved cars.
I was born in Raleigh, NC in 1949, and my earliest memories are of old Ford Coupes with loud, unmuffled flathead engines roaring around the quarter mile oval at the old Raleigh Speedway in the mid 1950's.
Fast Forward to high school in Greenville, NC - my gearhead friends and I all got guitars for Christmas one year, and of course we formed a band. (This was the sixties, after all...) Though I never lost my car lust, I went on a detour through the music business that lasted quite a few years, in between some college time (East Carolina University), and a couple of years in the Army. After the Army, a job with a band took me to a new home base in Charlotte. (We served as Jackie Wilson's backing band for a while.) After burning out somewhat on the road life, I worked in a music store for a while, played with sports cars, and took up drawing/painting cars again, on the side. One thing led to another, and I made a transition into automotive artist on a full time basis around 1980, with Water Color evolving into my medium of choice.
I staryed out looking for car shows in Hemmings Motor News in the search for venues to sell my art, and as I traveled and gained more exposure, I began getting invitations to participate in juried/invitational automotive art exhibits at Concours d' Elegance around the US. I have been fortunate to have been featured in a wide variety of automotive publications, as well as winning quite a few awards at many of the Concours, and having my work find a home in several prominent individual and corporate collections.
I am still residing in Charlotte, NC with my wife of 41 years (Lynn) and our daughter Danielle.
Artist’s Statement
There are endless artistic explorations to be discovered on, in, and about the automobile. Its surface is a limitless supply of color and contour; compositions to be isolated - painted in a realistic technique, yet abstract in the way that a section of chrome and pastel can be removed from its larger context and assume an aesthetic all its own. Reflected images of other vehicles or surroundings can play along the shape of a fender and take on the effects of a "fun - house mirror". In that uniquely American archive that is the "junk yard" there are explorations of a different kind of mood; the irony of finding a once proud luxury car, the pride and joy of days long past now in a state of decay, has its own magnetism... plus, as an added "bonus"; the contrarian in me loves to stand on its head the image that polite society holds of an old car as nothing but an "eyesore".