First you draw what you see

Since childhood I have always been involved with art. My career as a professional artist started over twenty years ago.

I have always been an observer.

My education has been of the self taught variety although that is a slightly misleading term. No I have not attended an art school or a university, but I have always paid close attention and am always willing to learn even when the teacher is unaware that they are indeed teaching this eager student. Likewise willing to teach when the student appears.
I have spent many years developing my skills with paint and pencil and perspective but always mindful of the lack of the formality of it all.

wow that is alot of 'ofs'

What this study has done and is doing is enhancing by information what I see with centuries old traditions that exist within Western art and culture.

I might say that observation in an ongoing process for many lifetimes.

"First you draw what you see, then you draw what you know, and finally you know what you see" Domenic Cretara

Walking through my perceptions and interpretations and observations I am coming to discover the way I think, see and feel.

I am learning that we painters think with our eyes and hands and the skill we develop through practice can not be separated from our ideas. I love this. So many times I have heard the opinion that skill is relegated to inferior, merely manual status. You cannot separate the hand from the arm, or the brain from the heart.

So there is an element of trust that must be employed as artists. The trust in the process, trust in the bigger picture, trust in the lifetime of searching and practice.

This is why I have said many times, 'Artist are like monks. There is a devotion required. There is an almost sacrificial attitude, if you will, required.

"For a life dedicated to the solitary task of pushing paint around a canvas, which is the essence of being a painter" Domenic Cretara