“How did a Canadian artist end up in Alabama?”

That is the question most people ask me. Not, “How did you learn how to paint?” They are both good questions, but the first is a better story.

I started painting professionally right out of Art College and was fortunate enough to be picked up by a publisher and have prints made of my paintings. These were distributed all over the country. My apprenticeship in classical portraiture had given my work a quality of the old masters which was appealing to people. It sold well and soon after, I met my wife Victoria. Before long we had a charming house in the country and a baby boy, Christian. Things were looking up. Along with the print work I did portraits, and other gallery work. Then the bottom fell out of the print market.

I started to do more portraits. My training had been in portraiture and it was my greatest love, but times were tough and Canadians do not have the same fondness for portraits as I did. Things started to look bad. I knew I was an exceptional portrait artist and was just in the wrong place to make a living with it. I did some investigating and found that the American South has had a long love affair with portraits. If I was going to fulfill my dream of being a portrait artist, and provide for my family the best place to be was America.

After a long road trip visiting several portrait brokers I found one in Montgomery that promised me the world. With a job offer in hand that would get me a work visa we headed back to Canada, sold everything, packed what we had in a U-Haul trailer and headed to Alabama.

We got as far as the border and were turned back by American Immigration; my job offer did not fit the requirements for a visa. This was a blow because there was no turning back; we had bet our future on going to America. I had my employer fax me a revised job offer and we headed back to the border the next day. The officer was not impressed to see me back. I pleaded my case like my life depended on it and he finally stamped the papers. We would not see Canada again for a few years.

We settled in a little house in Auburn, Alabama, and I drove to Montgomery to work. I was promised I would be a commissioned portrait artist; it turned out my employer had other plans. I was to paint over photographs and then I was to sign his name. I felt like I had fallen into artistic purgatory. I had no choice but to do it. With a family to support and nothing to go home to, I painted the photos and thought of a way out.

I had come to America to be portrait painter in the tradition of Sargent and Rembrandt and I was determined to do just that. I researched the top fine art portrait painters in the United States and knew I could paint as well or better than most of them. If my employer would not get me the commissions he promised I would get them on my own. In the great American tradition of business I would offer a finer product at better price to compete with the established painters. It worked and soon I had my own commissions. When the portrait broker found I was having success on my own I was fired. This was a problem. No job and the work visa would expire in months.

Living the “American Dream” involves crossing many barriers. When you are an immigrant there are many more, but America is still the only land where you can dream big and hard work and perseverance will get you to your goal.

The biggest barrier now was how to stay in America legally. Sure I could have just stayed and I would have done very well, but we wanted to do things right. We applied for green cards. The process took three years, hundreds of pages of documents, thousands of dollars in lawyers fees, immigration losing our file, Senator Riley ( now Governor) finding them and finally we became legal. I was granted the designation of “Alien of Extraordinary Ability”, the same as Albert Einstein. In the process we created our own American, our daughter Savannah. She was less paper work and far more fun.

During that time my career as a portrait artist took off. I was determined to paint the highest quality paintings and provide a personal service with the clients from the beginning discussion, to hanging the finished painting.

Over the years I have painted hundreds of portraits for individuals and institutions in Auburn, Birmingham, Mobile, Jackson, Atlanta, Nashville, Charlotte, New York and many other places throughout the United States.

I am now proud to say that I am represented by the Nation's largest and most respected  portrait broker, Portraits, Inc. Portraits Inc. has representatives throughout the country and offices in New York City and Birmingham, Alabama and they are experts in helping you find the right artist for you portrait needs.