I am a Chicago labor lawyer who paints for the fun of it, whose critics are friends, fellow art students and art teachers. My patrons are an encouraging spouse, three discriminating children and some admiring sisters. DaVinci didn’t have it this good. If I have developed a unique style I am unaware of it. I keep trying new methods and techniques. I usually paint from my own photographs or imagination, but sometimes borrow images from newspapers or books. This website, created by my son, is my first show. Some of the better works are hanging on my patrons’ walls. The rest are in “collection of the artist” awaiting a decision on whether ever to sell a painting.

I am especially grateful to Ed Hinkley, a most talented and patient artist and teacher. I met Ed at Ox Bow, a summer camp for artists in Saugatuck, Michigan, run by the Art Institute of Chicago and then took classes with him in his Chicago studio. Ed’s work is so different from his students’, but his “one little thing ” insights on his students’ work are usually a revelation.

Among the accomplished artists who tolerated the more primitive efforts evident here and share credit for any improvements were Audrey Warnimont Brown at the Oak Park Art League, Judith Raphael at Ox Bow and Tom Torluemke, at the Art Institute of Chicago.

I grew up in Roslyn Heights, New York, and spent my youth drawing. I drew landscapes, portraits of famous people, figures and, in school, surreptitious notebooks filled with drawings instead of class notes. Unfortunately, there were no art classes in the schools I attended.

One apparent benefit of my youthful drawing was, I am told, that I encouraged my next door neighbor to draw and inspired him to consider a career in art. I am sure that many other people had a much greater influence on his choice and eventual success as an artist, but I enjoy the possibility that I encouraged Charles Bourke Wildbanks to cultivate his talent and become an artist.