Artist 1966 - 1995

Wow, what a creative life it's been, where do I begin? From very early in life I enjoyed drawing, filling up every scrap of paper that I could. I found my own pre-occupation with drawing a way to pass the long tedious hours of grade school. Certainly starting with crayons, then pencil, conte crayons, charcoal, pen and ink, watercolor, acrylics, oil paints, tempera, casein, colored pencils, silkscreen printing, assemblage, computer drawing, 2-D computer drawing, 3-D computer drawing, and finally adding the element of time, 3-D Computer animation. it's been quite a ride. Most of my early work was recording the historical buildings and the area of Historic Ellicott City in ink, watercolor and oil paints. This held my attention for a very long time. Later after being introduced to drawing with a computer in 1984, I almost exclusively did that type of work. After returning to hands-on methods of applying paint once again, my style had become intensely modern. after a few years of this, I returned to realistic painting, mostly of landscapes and gardens. I am no longer active in traditional arts, but will most like return to it at some point later in life.

Still Tinkering with Remembering the Details

Although it may seem like there are no recent posts to this particular blog, in a way there are. What we have been doing is "fleshing out" the details on some of our old jobs in the older posts. Keep checking back and re-read them as we do updates.

Regrets about Forgotten Projects

Along the years, there have been so many interesting projects that I have acted as a consultant for, or labored on, or was involved with in some other way, that have passed by. I did not take notes, or photos, and only have my memories to go on. I would advise anyone that does such work, or interesting work of any kind, to record special events along the way, you just don't know when you may need to refer to them.
As I find myself doing more and more consulting in the field of Historic Preservation, I have no resume, or photos, of proof of any kind other than the finished buildings. Now I must go back and try to build some sort of record, and it's a daunting task. Don't follow my example, record events as you go.

Off to Work on History

Off to work again, first working on the doorway of an 1836 church, then off to do some grain painting on an 1834 home.

Harvest Farm Gardens-Sykesville Area 2007-2009

An avid gardener since 1980, I finally decided to start a business out of doing yet another thing that I like doing, propagating and growing plants. I never seem to get tired of learning about plants. I sell at farmer's markets, and on Memorial Day weekend at our home. Go to the website to sign up for our email list, for sale updates. Our main interest is in Cacti, Succulents, Bromeliads, and Epiphyllums.
Our main garden site is here.
Our gardening blog is here.
Our gardening store is here.

Purkeys Toy Trains-Sykesville Historic District 2000-2009

We started Purkeys Toy Trains in 2000 after an extensive, and expensive renovation to a building in very poor condition. Since being built in 1878, it had endured just about every kind of indignation that a historic building can. It had fire damage, aluminum siding, covered up stained glass windows, window mullions removed and replaced with 20th century style picture windows, chopped up interior space, and almost nothing remained of any interior or exterior details. You can read about the restoration in more detail by visiting the website page on the restoration.
We sell Lionel and MTH toy trains, Carrera slot cars, and Thomas the Tank wooden trains. You can read more about the store here, or shop online with us, by clicking here.
We maintain a large O gauge layout in the showroom, and encourage everyone to stop in with the kids or grandkids, or both to watch the trains run. If you are not near enough to us to stop in, here is a video of the layout.
We have also built custom layouts, here is a video of the largest one we have built, in fact, we are still working on it.

The Gate House Museum-Sykesville Historic District 1997