The wonderful circling of life!

Now the picture above is not a painting but a photograph.  This photograph is of myself (sitting and drawing with crayons on the floor) sitting behind my Grandfather, Leon Frank, doing an oil painting.  I was four years old at the time.  So, this is over 20 years ago.  My Grandpa was the first to introduced me to Fine Art and painting.  My Grandpa was the First person I remember watching paint.  He's a "self-taught" artist.  I find it very intriguing that my Grandfather was the one who influenced me into becoming a fine artist.

After going to college and getting my Bachelors Degree in Art and my Masters in Fine Arts Degree in Painting I'm influencing my Grandfather to practice art once more.  I am very blessed to have such a supportive family who encourages me in what I do.  Also, I am blessed to have had a wonderful education.  Unfortunately, my Grandfather never had the opportunity to study Fine Art Academically.  Now don't get me wrong, he is great with color. He's just always had a difficult time with drawing.  It's truly amazing that at the age of 89, my Grandpa is now taking private lessons from me in Chiaroscuro (to those of you who aren't artists chiaroscuro mean's "Light-dark," in Italian and in drawing terms it means the treatment of light and shade in a drawing or painting.)  It is wonderful that I can help teach him things knowing that if it wasn't for him, I wouldn't even be painting in the first place.

My next post will have some more artwork that I'm currently working on and news about my paintings as well. STAY TUNED!