Oscar in Rio Painting

After studying sociology my artistic career began as a comedian for CBC Radio. Then I made films and videos for about 20 years. I started painting in 2017 when I starting living beside a school that offered art classes at night. I took a couple of beginner classes to get my bearings and am otherwise self-taught. My desire to paint had sparked once, back in the late 1980’s, but I did not act on it at that time. Now was my chance to try it and that initial spark remained the same - I have a serious dislike of realism, especially for wildlife. It feels like boring photographs. I wanted to portray wildlife in an abstract and primitive manner. It didn’t take long to drift into rendering abstract creatures of all sorts, and sometimes I get abstract without any creatures at all. I never paint with intention. I just start to apply some colour and go with my whims and when something starts to emerge I zero in and work it up. I am still playing and discovering new techniques to explore. My goal is to make something that is beautiful or interesting or funny and sometimes I am lucky and it’s all of the above. I was raised in the suburbs of Vancouver, British Columbia and have resided in Toronto, Ontario since 1985.