I grew up in Ontario, and my family travelled to various parts of the US and Europe exposing me to a wide range of landscapes and urban areas. They also took me to many museums, art galleries, and art festivals to expose me to a variety of influences.
On a family trip to the McMichael Gallery in Kleinburg, Ontario (just north of Toronto) I got to meet A.Y. Jackson, the last living member of the Group of Seven, who was greeting visitors from his wheelchair.
In Ottawa I took many opportunities to visit the National Gallery of Canada to see the techniques used by famous artists from Canada and elsewhere. My key artistic influences were the impressionists of Europe and the Group of Seven in Canada.
As a young adult, I painted with oils and drew with pastels, and have gifted various creations to friends who requested them. During my professional career, I got to travel around Canada, including one wintertime trip up to Norman Wells, on the Mackenzie River in the Northwest Territories.
After I caught the “web” but, and started the TransCanadaHighway.com” website, I travelled more around Canada along our national highway(s) and taking pictures of urban, rural, and wilderness landscapes. Canada has such a mix of geographical and geological wonders, along with a variety of flora and fauna. Most travel magazines and articles published about Canada overlook our rural and wilderness areas as a “afterthought”, when they really are the most beautiful part of Canada! And I’ve also visited many of Canada’s major urban centres including Victoria, Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Ottawa, Toronto, and Halifax. And such a dramatic range of seasons, from hot dry Summers, to wet Spring and Fall, to cold and snowy Winters.
While travelling on business, mostly across Western Canada, I took lots of photos –over 400,000 so far– many from the roadside, and these became the inspiration for my paintings and pastels (which often contained the road). In my web design and website work, the primary creative medium was my digital photography.
Over the recent two decades I have travelled a fair bit, and my camera is always with me. I hike (mainly in the Alberta foothills and Rockies, and in British Columbia), I ski, I bicycle, I scuba dive and snorkel (Mexico and the Caribbean). Each of these gives me access to new vistas and new views.