I have been drawing most of my life. In 1996, thanks to a flyer on a lamp post, I started studying with Michael John Angel and later Fernando Freitas in Toronto in what has become the Academy of Realist Art. In 2004 I completed the program which is based on the 19th Century atelier tradition moving through copies in the flat, to cast work in charcoal and oil, and finally through a series of still life studies . Since then I have been focusing on painting the human form from life and photographs. More recently I have been moving back in time to the Italian Renaissance working with transparent glazes over a fairly finished underpainting to create formal but intimate portraits.The process is slow but there is something deeply satisfying about watching the work slowly develop over time. In pursuing this approach I have been working with Ryan Gauvin a talented young painter and teacher at the Academy of Realist Art.