I love it when people look at my art and smile! In many regards, it’s compensation enough for the work that I do. I love painting, and I love to make people smile.
I haven’t always been an artist, but I have always had an interest in art. I was born and raised in Richmond, California, in the San Francisco Bay Area, an area rich in artistic expression and opportunities. I attended UC Berkeley, where art and design often combined to set global trends.
Grandpa Hart, my mother’s father, was a conductor with the Atchison, Topeka, and the Santa Fe Railroad. He worked on the famous San Francisco Chief, and was quite proud to be its conductor as it worked its way through the San Joaquin Valley. Grandpa Hart was also a model railroader, and some of my earliest memories were of his model trains. I developed a love of trains and model trains at about age three. After waiting what seemed like an eternity, I was finally given the gift of an HO Scale model train at age ten. I have been a model railroader ever since!
In high school, I took a brief interest in art and painted a few small pieces using paints that would glow under a black light. However, I wanted to be a medical doctor, and had no time to take art classes. My artistic expression was focused on the model trains, as well as the trombone. At the time, I don’t think many people would say much about my focus on the trombone. Mostly it annoyed the neighbors, my parents, and the students who had to sit close to me in band.
Because I had done well academically in high school, I was offered the opportunity to attend one of the nation’s premier public universities while also attending high school. I was accepted to UC Berkeley at age 16, and attended Cal part time during my senior year in high school. I began my studies with the idea of going to medical school. I was also working part-time at Safeway. My desire to become a doctor soon changed after a high school football game.
Our high school had just beaten a local rival, and students from both schools went to the same pizza parlor to celebrate and commiserate, depending on where you sat in the bleachers. I was celebrating, and drank quite a bit of beer. Soon, fights broke out among the groups, and the police arrived. They arrested a friend I was with. When the cops arrived, David took off running. It was like greyhounds chasing the rabbit, but David wasn’t a rabbit, and soon he was being handcuffed on the ground. I jumped to his legal defense, which resulted in my accompanying David, handcuffed in the backseat of a police car. Mom and Dad weren’t too pleased.
The following week, a family friend, who also happened to be a police officer, offered to take me on a “ride-along.” I rode with him while he worked a night shift in the rough City of Richmond. It was an exciting, dangerous, and thrilling evening. I was hooked! Goodbye medical school (who wants to go to school for ten more years anyway!), hello police academy.
I was hired at age 20 by the Petaluma Police Department. I couldn’t even buy my own bullets, but I could perform the work of a police officer. I worked in law enforcement for almost 30 years, and all the while, I maintained the hobby of model railroading.
Shortly before my 50th birthday, I constructed a small model railroad in my garage, and attempted to paint a back drop resembling the peaks surrounding the Santa Rosa area. My wife and sons bought paints for me as a gift, and I began painting. It was a disaster. Nothing looked like I wanted it to look. I drove to the local art store and bought a book and its accompanying workbook, “Drawing On the Right Side of the Brain” by Betty Edwards. I began sketching, and I haven’t stopped for the last eight years.
My first paintings were acrylic, and my subject matter was trains. I was in love with the process and the subject. Because I had spent a career focusing on details (fingerprints at crime scenes, exact measurements at accident scenes, carefully recording my observations in detailed reports, etc.), and because I had focused on minute details as a model railroader, seeing the details of light, shadows, shapes, etc., seemed to come naturally to me.
I left my position as a Police Lieutenant with the Santa Rosa Police Department in 2007 to pursue a full-time art career.
I entered my first juried show in 2009, and all three of my entries were accepted. One of my pieces was one of the few that sold during that show, and it sold to a locally well-known art collector.
In 2011, I took oil painting lessons from a master painter, Charles Becker. He taught me how to paint from life, and how to paint using oils. I studied with him for about nine months, and have since painted exclusively with oils. I have been juried into shows across California, am represented by two galleries, and also keep busy with commissions. I have also been fortunate to win several awards from various venues.
In my police career, I was witness to some horrible human behavior. I saw the rippling effects of murders, fatal traffic accidents, molested children, substance abuse, domestic violence, gang violence, natural disasters, and more. Although the job was satisfying from many perspectives, and was often exciting and challenging, it was usually sad. Nobody calls the police when things are going well. There is ALWAYS a problem. Someone is negatively affected. People are unhappy. Nobody is smiling.
Now, I have a career that provides me with different opportunities. Art provides me with a chance to make people smile. And, that makes me happy. I sincerely hope that at least one of my pieces brings a smile to your face.
I haven’t always been an artist, but I have always had an interest in art. I was born and raised in Richmond, California, in the San Francisco Bay Area, an area rich in artistic expression and opportunities. I attended UC Berkeley, where art and design often combined to set global trends.
Grandpa Hart, my mother’s father, was a conductor with the Atchison, Topeka, and the Santa Fe Railroad. He worked on the famous San Francisco Chief, and was quite proud to be its conductor as it worked its way through the San Joaquin Valley. Grandpa Hart was also a model railroader, and some of my earliest memories were of his model trains. I developed a love of trains and model trains at about age three. After waiting what seemed like an eternity, I was finally given the gift of an HO Scale model train at age ten. I have been a model railroader ever since!
In high school, I took a brief interest in art and painted a few small pieces using paints that would glow under a black light. However, I wanted to be a medical doctor, and had no time to take art classes. My artistic expression was focused on the model trains, as well as the trombone. At the time, I don’t think many people would say much about my focus on the trombone. Mostly it annoyed the neighbors, my parents, and the students who had to sit close to me in band.
Because I had done well academically in high school, I was offered the opportunity to attend one of the nation’s premier public universities while also attending high school. I was accepted to UC Berkeley at age 16, and attended Cal part time during my senior year in high school. I began my studies with the idea of going to medical school. I was also working part-time at Safeway. My desire to become a doctor soon changed after a high school football game.
Our high school had just beaten a local rival, and students from both schools went to the same pizza parlor to celebrate and commiserate, depending on where you sat in the bleachers. I was celebrating, and drank quite a bit of beer. Soon, fights broke out among the groups, and the police arrived. They arrested a friend I was with. When the cops arrived, David took off running. It was like greyhounds chasing the rabbit, but David wasn’t a rabbit, and soon he was being handcuffed on the ground. I jumped to his legal defense, which resulted in my accompanying David, handcuffed in the backseat of a police car. Mom and Dad weren’t too pleased.
The following week, a family friend, who also happened to be a police officer, offered to take me on a “ride-along.” I rode with him while he worked a night shift in the rough City of Richmond. It was an exciting, dangerous, and thrilling evening. I was hooked! Goodbye medical school (who wants to go to school for ten more years anyway!), hello police academy.
I was hired at age 20 by the Petaluma Police Department. I couldn’t even buy my own bullets, but I could perform the work of a police officer. I worked in law enforcement for almost 30 years, and all the while, I maintained the hobby of model railroading.
Shortly before my 50th birthday, I constructed a small model railroad in my garage, and attempted to paint a back drop resembling the peaks surrounding the Santa Rosa area. My wife and sons bought paints for me as a gift, and I began painting. It was a disaster. Nothing looked like I wanted it to look. I drove to the local art store and bought a book and its accompanying workbook, “Drawing On the Right Side of the Brain” by Betty Edwards. I began sketching, and I haven’t stopped for the last eight years.
My first paintings were acrylic, and my subject matter was trains. I was in love with the process and the subject. Because I had spent a career focusing on details (fingerprints at crime scenes, exact measurements at accident scenes, carefully recording my observations in detailed reports, etc.), and because I had focused on minute details as a model railroader, seeing the details of light, shadows, shapes, etc., seemed to come naturally to me.
I left my position as a Police Lieutenant with the Santa Rosa Police Department in 2007 to pursue a full-time art career.
I entered my first juried show in 2009, and all three of my entries were accepted. One of my pieces was one of the few that sold during that show, and it sold to a locally well-known art collector.
In 2011, I took oil painting lessons from a master painter, Charles Becker. He taught me how to paint from life, and how to paint using oils. I studied with him for about nine months, and have since painted exclusively with oils. I have been juried into shows across California, am represented by two galleries, and also keep busy with commissions. I have also been fortunate to win several awards from various venues.
In my police career, I was witness to some horrible human behavior. I saw the rippling effects of murders, fatal traffic accidents, molested children, substance abuse, domestic violence, gang violence, natural disasters, and more. Although the job was satisfying from many perspectives, and was often exciting and challenging, it was usually sad. Nobody calls the police when things are going well. There is ALWAYS a problem. Someone is negatively affected. People are unhappy. Nobody is smiling.
Now, I have a career that provides me with different opportunities. Art provides me with a chance to make people smile. And, that makes me happy. I sincerely hope that at least one of my pieces brings a smile to your face.