About the Artist

Photo Credit: Susan Garner Photography

I have been a full-time artist for about thirty years. For the first 18 of those years I was a television news artist, specializing in courtroom illustrations. My clientele included CBS Network News, CNN and PM Magazine, as well as the Associated Press, United Press International, USA Today and the German news magazine, Neue Review. I am now a portrait painter and sculptor, as well as a figure and tromp l’oeil still life painter. I have done many portraits of cowboy celebrities, some of which you can see in the Gallery.

As a painter, I mostly use modern adaptations of what is called "the old masters technique," which is also called "indirect technique." This is a method, in which one builds up a painting in accumulative layers of paint. Although very traditional in this sense, I take full advantage of modern materials that the old masters did not have. This element of traditionalism notwithstanding, I am an alternative portraitist, and not restricted by stylistic convention. Like the portrait artists of Europe, I prefer to be innovative and eclectic. I choose to do work that is different from the run-of-the-mill portraiture. I also choose to do paintings that will stand on their own as works of art—and are desirable even to those who have never even met the sitter.

I work in a variety of mediums, but do most of my commissioned portraits in Genesis heat-set oils. This is a non-toxic and non-flammable medium that remains wet indefinitely until you apply heat to it, in which case it dries immediately. Thus a portrait will be ready for varnishing and framing within the day after it is complete.

The prices of my commissioned portraiture begin at $5,000—plus the expenses of travel and lodging. I usually work from photos that I take myself. I prefer to take the photographs out on location, where the sitter is more comfortable within his/her own environment. You can see examples of my portrait art in the Gallery.
I am also a writer and workshop instructor. I write for Artist’s Magazine. (a Contributing Editor), Pastel Journal, Watercolor Magic, The Portrait Signature (the quarterly journal of the American Society of Portrait Artists) and for North Light Books (the world’s largest publisher of art instructional books). You can order Watercolor Basics: People through your local bookstore, or on-line dealer.

Please contact me with any questions about paintings available for sale, pricing, for commissioning a portrait or painting, or for scheduling a class or workshop in your area. You may E-mail Butch using the Contact the Artist button below, or telephone me at my Port Angeles, WA studio.