When I was a young boy I developed a love for the out of doors. Growing up in Peterborough, Ontario, I was surrounded by the Kawartha Lakes, forests, rivers and streams, and I used them all. Summers would find me fishing or hiking watercourses to where ever they would take me. It didn't seem to matter; as long as I was near some sort of water I was happy. Once winter dropped its snowy blanket, I was drawn to the forests again. This time I'd have a backpack and no matter the temperature, John Coleman and I would take on the challenge of making ourselves at home with nature as our chilly companion. My boyhood friend and I developed our skills in and with the forest; we grew to love eating a freshly caught trout, but most of all we developed and nurtured an extreme love and appreciation of the wonders of nature around us.

My life in the RCMP took me to some amazing places in terms of unique Canadian landscapes. High hills and lakes teaming with rainbow trout surrounded Vernon, in the Okanagan Valley of British Columbia. Bella Bella, half way up the coast of British Columbia, taught Joy and I and my family to live in the wet embrace of the Coastal rain forest. The ocean waters, and all its moody temperaments, provided an even wider dimension of nature to learn and appreciate. Tofino, on the west coast of Vancouver Island, was a different ocean from what we'd come to know at Bella Bella. Its beaches look out onto the vast, open Pacific Ocean. It was there that I was introduced to stunning beauty, as I'd never seen before. The sunset skies of the Pacific Ocean and the ever-changing waters that reflect it, they are surely the kaleidoscope palette box of the Creator as he or she sets about painting each and every evening. Coincidentally, as my biography outlines, it was in Tofino that I began to paint. My awe and inspiration for what was all around me demanded that it come out. I had to paint, and I can't ever stop. It has become not only a way of life for me; it has become the rhythm of my life.

I paint moments. I don't paint whimsy; rather I look for those images that truly are unforgettable to me. I paint real places and real times. I can see an image a thousand times and not see the painting, however, just the right time of day, a ray of the setting sunlight or a silhouette against the brightness of the day will trigger it in me. My artist's creative switch turns on and I'm compelled to capture that moment in a painting. I describe my first seven years of my retirement as, overall, the very best years of my life and I'm not fooling myself when I say that. My job now, in retirement, is to keep that rhythm going. Just as you'll find your toe tapping to a catchy tune, my artistic eye is always open to the world around me, ever resonating to the creative rhythm in my soul. And so, life takes me to the mountain trails or to the creek in the deep green, misty west coast forest. My canoe takes me to be a part of both adventure and inspiration. A mirror lake as seen from the seat of a canoe would make an artist out of anyone I am sure. Every sunrise and every sunset presents a possibility and the lapping waters of the ocean waves on a rocky beach are always in time with my creative rhythm. Paintings are all around me and my appetite to paint is never satiated. The cadence of the day, sunrise, sunset, is a part of the rhythm. The leaves bristling with the wind are a part of the symphony. So too the babble of the stream, they all set my artistic toe to tapping.

Perhaps the greatest joy of all though is the fact that some of you like what I paint. Those who do appreciate my work can obviously feel the rhythm too. As an artist there is no greater reward than to have your work mean something to others. It is an artist's finger into the future. Long after I'm gone, for those who appreciate my work, they'll still feel the rhythm of my soul every time they appreciate my paintings. I guess, when one thinks about it, it's not unlike an old song title from the 60's for an artist like me, long after I'm gone, because some folks appreciate my artwork - "The Beat Goes On".