cris

Artist Bio My family immigrated from Lancashire England to the San Francisco Bay Area via a British ship. I was born on this ship as it was passing through the Panama Canal.
After learning how to walk etc., I soon started to develop my artistic skills. I started as a self-taught artist on my bedroom walls. Then moved to the hallway walls. Then my mom caught me before I got to the living room walls & got me enrolled in some sort of art program for pre-school kids. I loved it & got to paint, work with clay, paper mâché etc. & have great memories of the experience.
When I got to grammar school, I improved my drawing skills during my many time outs. When I was 10, my mom got me into an after-school art program. There I learned how to stretch canvas & prime it with lead-based gesso & got my first set of oil paints.
When I got to high school, I improved my drawing skills with a lot of doddles in my notebooks plus oil paintings I did at home.
Got out of high school when I was 17 & the nearby junior college had a good art program so I took as many art classes as I could. I also attended a semester at the San Francisco Academy of Art & later a tri-mester at CCAC. Loved the studio classes. The teachers were great but never taught anyone how to do art but rather gave advice & critiqued our work. You could learn a lot by just walking around these studios' classes & see what other students were doing.
Had other interest including music, soccer, skiing & especially Yosemite rock climbing & moved to Camp 4 in the early 70’s. Lived mostly in the Yosemite area ever since. Never a full-time artist but always found time to do some artwork plus did teach art classes for the Mariposa Arts Council in local schools, after school art programs & a Park & Rec. Summer Camp Art program.

Preferred Media: painting, sketch