About the Art

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=50 BGCOLOR="#660000" TEXT="#F7F7FF"> <div> <I><B>About the Art</B></I></div> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" width=150 BGCOLOR="#999999" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <B> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="132" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 35 ><NOBR><div> <A HREF="id137.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Oil Paintings Printed on Canvas 15 x 30 "><U><B><IMG SRC="007151d0.gif" border=0 width="21" height="29" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></U></A></div> </NOBR></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP><NOBR><div> <A HREF="id2.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Some Favorite Web Sites"><U><B><IMG SRC="008151d0.gif" border=0 width="21" height="29" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></U></A></div> </NOBR></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="20"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="35" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="20" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP><NOBR><div> <IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="29" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" WIDTH="13"></div> </NOBR></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP><NOBR><div> <IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="29" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" WIDTH="27"></div> </NOBR></tD> </tR> </TABLE></B></div> <div> <A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="HOME"><U><B>HOME</B></U></A></div> </td> <td valign="top" height=430 BGCOLOR="#003333" TEXT="#F7F7FF"> <bR> <div> <B>My art is generally falls into one of three categories: pen and ink with watercolor, transparent watercolor, and oil.   I also produce my own prints.  Since I get many questions about how I both create and reproduce my pictures I thought a brief discussion of my approach in each technique might be of interest.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>General</B><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#FFFFFF" FACE="Arial" ><B>:</B></FONT></div> <bR> <div> <B>I have always been impressed with paintings of ships and the sea and the various ways that great maritime artists like Anton Otto Fischer, Arthur Briscoe,  Antoine Roux and Carl Evers could make the sea look even more real than life.  Much of what I have learned has been from studying the work of these artists as well as art techniques of  three very excellent contemporary artists; the water colors of John Barber, the oils of John Stobart and Christopher Blossom, and the incredible pen and inks of Claudia Nice.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>In planning my contemporary scenes I work from  personal knowledge of the location and  from detailed photographs of ships and boats which I have taken over a period of many years.   For my waterfowl scenes my primary resource has been the many photographs I have taken at the Blackwater National Wildlife Preserve near Cambridge, Maryland.  Boats and ships, especially tug boats, are of special interest to me.  I always have always a camera with me in all my travels and take multiple photographs from different angles of ships and boats I see  for future reference.  I also take multiple pictures of surrounding background scenes in order to assure period accuracy.  In addition, whenever possible, I take detail pictures of deck and rigging to assure technical accuracy.  In composing a scene I usually work from anywhere from six to ten slides.  </B><B>For planning my historical scenes of ships and backgrounds that no longer exist I do considerable historical research and rely heavily on ship/boat plans plans, historical documents, and photographs of the period.  I also maintain an extensive reference library of my own. </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>Working from photographs requires very special attention to perspective.  Almost all photographs tend to distort the natural perspective of the scene in some way.  A great deal of the time I spend in planning a scene is spent on laying out the vanishing points and angles of perspective so that the subject matter all appears in a logical and natural perspective from the angle of view and distance I plan for the final scene.  Since I usually use several different photographs for various components in the scene, attention to perspective is especially crucial to assure backgrounds and primary subjects in the scene are correctly proportioned and  placed in proper relationship to each other.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>                                                                                                    </B><B><U>THE ART</U></B></div> <bR> <div> <B>Pen & Ink</B><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#FFFFFF" FACE="Arial" ><B>:</B></FONT></div> <bR> <div> <B>My pen and ink drawings are produced using a technical pen with very a fine point (usually 4x0 or 6x0 point) and high quality permanent pigment India ink.  Since the 6x0 point tends to clog more easily than 4x0 or larger I use Rapidograph 3085-F ink which is a bit more free flowing than the standard 3080-F ink.  The paper used is usually a full 22" X 30" sheet of Arches cold pressed 140 lb. watercolor paper.  This large size allows me to provide more accurate and complete technical detail.  The cold pressed surface has three advantages for me.  First, it tends to break up the lines just enough to give the picture a softer texture and allows more delicate shading and textures than would be possible on a hard hot pressed or plate surface.  Second, this larger size also allows me a wider range of flexibility in deciding the size of the print to be produced.  Third, and very important, it allows for almost invisible correction of errors that would be not be possible were I to use hot pressed or plate surfaced paper.  Because of customer demand I started to add </B><B> water color to </B><B>my pen and ink drawings in the early 1990s.   Today almost all of my pen and ink drawings are water colored. </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>Water Color</B><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#FFFFFF" FACE="Arial" ><B>:</B></FONT></div> <bR> <div> <B>All of my watercolor work, including that done on my pen and ink drawings, is done with transparent water color; I do not use gouache or any other opaque paint - I rely on the natural color of the paper for all whites.  I use masking fluid in order to preserve the whites and other areas for overpainting in the scene.  This is especially important in painting ships and boats in water color which involve great amounts of fine deck and rigging detail. </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>On most of my water color scenes I use a full 22" x 30" sheet of  300 or 400 LB Arches cold pressed or rough water color paper.  After masking for principal subjects, my skies are almost always done wet in wet.  I use the highest quality artists water colors and brushes.  I have found the better quality Asian Sumi brushes (the really good ones are very hard to find) work extremely well for me for sky and water.  For ships, boats, buildings, brickwork and other structural shapes and detail I like the flat sable brushes.  For fine detail work I both sable and synthetic brushes (while I use several Windsor Newton Series #7 sable brushes I also find the springy resiliance of high quality synthetic brushes better for some my detail work). </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>Oil</B><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#FFFFFF" FACE="Arial" ><B>:</B></FONT></div> <bR> <div> <B>My original art usually runs from 16" x32" to 36" x 48".  Most are on high quality Belgian linen canvas with some on untempered masonite panels.  I use a 4" trowel blade painting knife for all water and skies and use brush work for the boat, ship, or waterfowl subjects in the scene.  I have found that the painting knife gives me the most spontaneous and realistic skies and water, however, brush work is essential for the realistic detail I want in the main subjects.   I use oil paint rather than acrylic paint because it dries much slower and allows more time for me to perfect the scene I am trying to create (i.e., I like to take my time on my paintings). </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>                                                                                       </B><B><U>PRODUCING THE PRINTS</U></B></div> <bR> <div> <B>One area that I receive more questions on than any other is the process of having prints, or reproductions, made.  The decision to have a picture reproduced is probably one of the most intimidating decisions any artist can make  because of the financial investment and uncertain potential for sales.  </B><B>The following is a brief discussion of each of the printing processes I use or have used:</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>Color Prints-Transparent </B><B>Water Color and </B><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#FFFFFF" FACE="Arial" ><B> </B></FONT><B>Water Colored Pen & Ink</B><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#FFFFFF" FACE="Arial" ><B>:</B></FONT></div> <bR> <div> <B>I produce my color prints using state of the art digital inkjet printmaking technology and in the past couple of years I have had customers ask if my prints were giclees.  Because I have concerns about the public's perceived meaning of that term I believe a few words about</B><B> the giclee printing process are appropriate.</B><B>    </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>The term giclee (pronounced "zheeclay or "</B><B>ghee-clay</B><B>") is derived from a French word that has been loosly interpreted to  mean "fine spray".  </B><B>The use of the term “giclee” in fine art was originally a proprietary term that applied exclusively to prints produced on a very expensive very high quality IRIS 3024 color ink jet printer first introduced at a trade show in Miami, Florida in September of 198</B><B>7</B><B> (IRIS Graphics of Bedford, Massachusetts continues today to be a pace setting leader in large format high volume ink-jet printers used in the fine art and graphic arts industry</B><B>).  </B><B>T</B><B>he first fine art prints were introduced to the public using the IRIS process in 1990 but it was another ten years before problems with ink permanence and production costs would be resolved and permit this process to be generally acceptable for fine art (it was during this period when someone came up with the term </B><B>“Giclee”). </B><B> In the next five years other manufacturers began producing high quality professional ink jet printers for the industry for fine art printing, and, by the end of the 20th century were able to produce cost effective smaller format  equipment of equal quality for both small business and home use.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>In recent years the term </B><B>“giclee” </B><B>was adopted by many in the fine art reproduction industry because it implies a uniqueness and higher quality than would be implied if reproductions were simply referred to (more accurately) as ink jet prints.  The fact is that any art image produced on any modern high definition ink jet printer can be referred to as a giclee.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>So, why is it that I do not refer to my reproductions as giclees?  It is for the simple reason that I dislike the term and I think it is generally misleading for the average person.  The average person has no idea what a giclee is or how it is produced.  In my opinion it has come to be a sales device used by many producers of fine art reproductions because they have found that many people will pay more for giclees than they will for ink-jet reproductions even though they are one in the same.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>The higher quality giclee/ink jet prints today are created typically using professional 6-Color to 10-Color ink-jet printers capable of producing print sizes up to 48" wide and beyond.  These modern high tech printers are capable of producing incredibly detailed prints for both the fine art and photographic markets.  The printers I use are this type of printer; an Epson 4800 with a 17" wide bed and an Epson 2880 with a 13" wide bed. </B><B>  These printers can produce 2880 dpi (dots per inch) prints with archival </B><B>Epson UltraChrome K3 </B><B>pigment based ink on archival paper (or canvas) up to 13" wide on the 2880 and up to 17" wide on the 4800 and they</B><B> produce excellent prints with extremely high continuous tone quality color and extremely fine detail</B><B>.  In addition, and very important, they will accept heavy weight paper up to 90 or 140 pound  Arches cold pressed or rough water color paper which I use for my color prints.  It</B><B> is an internally sized,</B><B> all rag, uncoated, acid free paper which prints much better than some other brands I have tried (paper with less sizing tend to be too absorbent to produce good clear crisp images).  </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>I always make high quality 35 mm slides or digital images of all my original art and keep these images as permanent records.  I have always used Nikon equipment to make images of my pictures: in the past I used a Nikon F-100 for 35mm images; however, I now use a Nikon D-300 digital camera exclusively for digital images.  I usually use a 35-70 f2.8 Nikkor Zoom lens for these images since that lens provides excellent resolution and minimal optical distortion.  Digital images are downloaded directly to the computer from the D-300 and once the images are in my computer I can size and edit them to precisely match the original art using Adobe Photoshop software.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>A good computer with plenty of memory is also essential.  Making color prints involves scanning large images at fairly high dpi levels and involves file sizes that  can easily go to 50 MB or more.  I have found computer memory of at least 1 GB is necessary, however, more is highly recommended and I currently use 4 GB.  I use a PC and the Windows XP Professional operating system.  </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>Those interested in looking into producing their own color prints may want to visit the </B><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#FFFF33" FACE="Arial" ><A HREF="http://www.wilhelm-research.com" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.wilhelm-research.com"><U><B>Wilhelm Imaging Research</B></U></A></FONT><B> web site for further information about the relative permanence of specific ink and paper combinations.  </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>Color Prints-</B><B>Oil</B><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#FFFFFF" FACE="Arial" ><B>:</B></FONT></div> <bR> <div> <B>All of these prints are signed and numbered limited edition reproductions of the artists original oil paintings. They are produced and printed by the artist on canvas and have been mounted on traditional stretcher frames used for original art.  The back of the stretcher frame of each picture is completely sealed with Lineco acid free backing paper to protect the canvas.  These images are produced on the same Epson Stylus Pro 4800  and 2880 wide format printers using the Epson UltraChrome K3 pigment ink set for archival color that i use for water color images.  The images are printed on Premier Water Resistant Canvas for Epson and has been given a protective coat of Premier Art Print Shield/Eco Shield.  This permanence of this printing process has been evaluated by Wilhelm Imaging Research, Inc. (see link in preceding paragraph) and prints produced in this manner have been found to have an extremely high permanence rating of over 100 years.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>                                                                                             Mats and Frames</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>Once the prints are completed I mat the prints using high quality acid free mat board.  I cut all mats myself and all of my prints are double matted, most in standard  frame sizes.  For backing board I use 1/8" acid free foam board.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>To do a good job of cutting double mats a high quality mat cutter is essential.  A good mat cutter will can be expected to cost  $800 to $1200; I use a 40" Fletcher 2100 with the stops, and base extension.  If you plan on cutting many mats of the same size the stops are essential and are well worth the extra $150 or so they may cost.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>The frames I generally use</B><B> </B><B>are either a walnut finish distressed pine frame or a grayish wire brushed wood frame, with matting color coordinated to the frame used.  </B><B> For all pictures </B><B>up to a frame size of 16" x 20"  I  use a 1" wide frame; on those 18" x 24" and larger I usually use a 2" wide molding .  Premium quality picture glass is used on all framed pictures.  For all canvas prints I use</B><B> 2" wide</B><B>  mouldings. </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>                                                                                   About this Web Site</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>This web site was constructed and is maintained entirely by the artist.  It is an e-commerce web site (as opposed to a personal web site such as many Internet Services Providers make available to their subscribers) and it is hosted for me by </B><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#FFFF33" FACE="Arial" ><A HREF="http://www.purehost.com" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.purehost.com"><U><B>PureHost</B></U></A></FONT><B>.  They provide many e-commerce features and benefits that I have not fully utilized, and, for the present the web site serves my purpose better as an on line reference and catalog of my work.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>Professional Affiliations/Memberships</B><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#FFFFFF" FACE="Arial" ><B>:</B></FONT></div> <div> <B>                                             </B></div> <div> <B>American Society of Marine Artists (Artist Member)</B></div> <div> <B>Coast Guard Art Program (COGAP)</B></div> <div> <B>Tugboat Enthusiasts Society of the Americas</B></div> <div> <B>LEKKO (The International Tugboat Enthusiasts Society)</B></div> <div> <B>The Rail Marine Information Group</B></div> <div> <B>Project Liberty Ship</B></div> <div> <B>Baltimore Museum of Industry</B></div> <div> <B>Maryland Waterman's Association</B></div> <div> <B>Ducks Unlimited</B></div> <div> <B>Calvert Marine Society</B></div> <div> <B>Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum</B></div> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>