Creative Process

I am mostly a self taught artist. I was lucky to have had help early on from some very knowledgeable and creative artists. I have also been to a few specialty skills schools but mostly I am a student of hard work and trial and error.
Here you will see a sampling of the steps to my process. I snapped a few pictures of the different techniques I was using while making a Brown Trout. The work is tedious and demands intense concentration – there are no erasers for hammers. The making of a piece is completely manual and can cause pain if I’m not paying attention… ALL of the time. I have learned, with my blood, to respect this metal.
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The coloring of this work is the most fun to me. All the colors you see live in the copper. I coax it out with heat. It’s a very difficult process. I have to anticipate the color change and move the flame before the color appears. Knowing at what depths the colors live is the trick. I use the adjustments of the two gases to make the flame brush that I need for the particular markings that I am trying to achieve. The gases react differently according to the current ambient temperature and humidity of the studio. So everyday has different conditions. Flame painting is an art in and of itself. I hope you enjoy viewing a sampling of how I do it.

Brown Trout Construction