~ Artwork ~

Before music, art was my first passion. I was raised in an artistic household - both of my parents were artists, and they met while studying at Pratt Art Institute in New York City. My Dad went on to be one of the top art directors in the New York advertising scene, and my Mom was a fantastic cartoonist and painter. Below you can see a few samples of their work.

To the left is an oil painting of a live model that my Mom did while at Pratt (her maiden name was Schuler). Below is an example that showcases her skills in the art of caricature.

My Dad started out doing print ads, two of which you can see below. On the left is an award-winning ad he did for the Jaguar XKE (it was cool, because he got to bring one home for several days). On the right is a full-page ad that was in LIFE magazine that he did for Texaco in 1961.

Of all the kids that auditioned, I was the one that ended up in the final ad . . .

Later on in my Dad's career, he went into producing television ads, and directed TV commercials for many products, many of which used endorsements by celebrities, (including tennis great Chris Evert, astronaut Wally Schirra, comedian Jonathan Winters, and fashion icon Oscar de la Renta.

Pratt Institute used to have an annual art contest for the children of alumni. Here is a photo of me with my Mom and Dad one year when I won first prize. It was a still life that I didn't even have time to complete, but I guess the judges liked it as it was - maybe they thought I'd done it that way on purpose . . .

~ My art ~

The Bells of Distant Stars (2022) - a 22x28-inch watercolor inspired by the album cover

This new watercolor phase started with this elephant picture – I did as

a gift for my wife in August of 2020. It is a 24 x18-inch watercolor with colored pencil added for detail, and block crayon added for texture.

In the past, for color drawings I always used colored pencil, but I found

it difficult to color in large areas. I had never done watercolor before,

but I thought it would be a good way to color in these large areas. I watched a few Youtube videos, and found that it was a perfect way to

fill in the background colors. Using the colored pencil on top of the watercolors enabled me to add detail and additional coloring. Then, dragging block crayon over the elephants ended up being a perfect way

to emulate the rough texture of the skin.

After doing the elephants picture, I did a few more paintings/drawings

as gifts for friends and family. Clockwise from the top left are a friend's dog, one of my son's cats, a tiger and two cheetahs. These vary in size from 16x20 inches to 18x24 inches.

Commmissions are available upon request. Please email me through the CONTACT tab above if you're interested.

Growing up, I particularly liked to draw, and I would spend long hours drawing dinosaurs, birds, etc. When I was eleven years old, the Beatles came to America, and everything changed. I, and all my friends wanted to be in a band, so I put the pencils down and started putting all my creative energy into making music.

Then, during the lockdown of 2020, in addition to working on music, I had plenty of time to
get back into doing some art. This page is an opportunity for me to share some of that with you.
My hope is that viewing this page might spark something in you – perhaps to re-discover an old passion that has lied dormant. I know it's been a lot of fun for me.