Art Chowder September | October 2016, Issue 5 | Page 9

Did you always know that you wanted to
be an artist?

Pretty much. My older brother would draw all
the time and I would watch him draw and learn
things from him, like perspective. I excelled in
art in junior and senior high school, enjoying it
very much. In college I didn’t think I was good
enough to pursue a fine art career so my major
the first year was focused on becoming a physical
education teacher, and possibly a writer. I took
writing that first year and my teacher thought I
had potential. Upon realizing that SFCC had
a 2 and 3-year graphic design program, I shifted
my major the second year to pursuing a 3-year
degree in graphic design. It was during this
period that I discovered watercolor.
How long have you been creating?
Of course everyone begins creating at birth. Creativity as a painter began when I started painting in
college, my first class in 1967.
Do you work in different mediums?
I work primarily in watercolor and egg tempera. I do
a few oil paintings now and then.

Which medium is
your favorite?

I equally like watercolor
and egg tempera. Wa-

tercolor is thinner, more
fluid and quicker then egg
tempera. Egg Tempera
(using egg yolk with your
watercolor), is a thicker,
dryer approach to painting. It takes much longer
to finish an egg tempera
then a watercolor. I tell
my students, painting in
watercolor is like writing
a poem or a short story.
Egg tempera is more like
writing a novel.

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