Was created in 2005. I have always been interested in art work but many events in my life took me away from pursuing it. Traveling, work in the field of forestry, building my home, and my children have kept me busy. In January of 2005 I found that there was something lacking in my life, and I returned to practicing my art. My last large collection was done in Spain during a 6 month trip, which took place 15 years ago.

In 2005 I discovered the digital studio, before this time I had no real experience in using a computer, except for playing games. I still do not own a digital camera, but I am well set up with top of the line software and hardware for scanning editing and printing fine art prints. my work flow is color managed including a color calibrated monitor. It has been a year since I began working with image editing software, starting with Paint Shop Pro8, and ending with Photo Shop CS2. I have learned a lot since then, and it has been a steep learning curve, but I love it just as much as working with pastels. I also feel that digital creations are just as valid as traditional methods.

Most of the digital work was started after August of 2005, and most of the pastels were created 15 years ago in Spain. I will be finishing pastels started in 2005 and I hope to build up a new collection by the end of this year.

A scanogram is, in its simplest form, an object that was captured on a flat bed scanner. The word scanogram derives from the traditional dark room word photogram, which is a method where an object is placed on top of photosensitive paper, and then exposed with light.

I discovered this idea after reading an article from the 2004 issue of the Photoed magazine. This is a Canadian publication dedicated to the photographic arts.

Since this discovery, I have been scanning anything and everything I can fit onto my flat bed scanner. You can look at it this way - the flat bed scanner is the most powerful digital camera made and it does not cost you an arm and a leg to own. At this time a 24 megapixel digital camera is 24 to 30 grand and a good scanner is 250 to300 dollars which can render a 200+ megapixel image. (note: you do not need an expensive scanner to create scanograms).

I then use these images for photo montages on there own, or abstracted. I have scanned bees, butterflies, bugs, wild flowers, plates, scissors, an unfortunate hummingbird (which died after flying into a window) and the list goes on.

A montage is a image that has been created from parts of other images, another term that could be used for this method is a image collage.

All images used in the montages are original and not copied from any publications.

After Degas is a good example of an image collage. I used 80 separate images, most of which were scanned on my flat bed scanner. The image of the Bolivian women is from a photo I took while attending a festival in Bolivia. The flowers are wild species found in B.C., Canada, in the Cariboo region. The vase is a fruit bowl, the background and tablecloth are Bolivian textiles, and the scissors are my rusty old ones that I changed to gold. The composition for this piece was inspired by a painting by Degas. I used the layout and the position of the flowers and the women, the rest is different. There was also approximately 80 adjustment layers. The file size for pieces like this become very large, 500-1000 megabits.

I love creating these, and once you get going on a piece it becomes all consuming. The Degas image took approximately 60 hours to complete.

The world around us is huge, and most of the time we only focus on the larger aspects of it and the smaller side gets passed by with little notice. This smaller world when enlarged is amazing and surprising. The center of a flower that may only be a 1/4 inch wide, is a world in its self when enlarged to 24 inches wide. Abstract and full of rich texture and color, they are nature's great art.

My scanograms of the wild flowers found in my province, and the shells found on beaches from around the world are a testament to the wonders around us. I encourage you to try this method out and discover the gems that are under foot in your region. Once you start you will not be able to stop and you will find that you will become keenly aware of your surroundings.

The soft pastel is a wonderful medium to work with. The texture, the richness of color, cannot be produced by any other medium. Pastel is made from special clays and pigment. They come in a range of different hardness, the softest of these have very few binders, and are creamy. In a pastel painting, one may use 3 or 4 different grades of hardness , layered on top of one another.

I also use a variety of other materials along with the pastel. This includes Conte, pastel pencils, water color sticks, acrylic paint, marble dust modeling paste for tooth and texture, and gesso to seal some surfaces. I also use a variety of papers and boards. All material is acid free.

My technic is instinctive and my approach to a piece will change from subject to subject. Most people who see my work think of the impressionistic style, and I do tend towards this. I also look for the spirit of the subject, and hope to put an emotional aspect to the piece. I want the viewer to enter the piece and stay awhile, and for the work to offer a new visual experience or to remind of a past experience.

I continue to explore and experiment with pastels and mixed media. One of these experiments is to create a finished pastel then digitalizes it and mix the original photo with it. There are two examples of this method at this time in the photo gallery. The Tiger Whiskey Jug is a pure scanogram montage. I had set this composition up as a still life for a pastel. But in this case I did not complete the painting. I decided to take this unfinished piece and use it as the base for the montage Tiger Whiskey piece. This gave the image an interesting underlying texture that Photoshop filters could not produce.

The next piece is The Violin which comes from a black and white photo I took 24 years ago. I first created a finished painting of the subject, abstracting certain components. Then I scanned the original on a flat bed scanner and from there brought it into Photoshop and mixed it with the original photo. This gave it a softer look and I believe a unique style to it.