I always encourage others to get a solid foundation, regardless of what they are pursuing in life, especially since I did not have the opportunity to have classical training at the start of my career as an artist...  In fact, here's a funny story about my early years not having a foundation in drawing and painting...  This painting titled "Romantic and Realist" is an example of my original French Expressionist Style.  This painting is in a private collection. Now I only have the postcard, but selling this painting was very helpful to me during my early career as a painter.  

My arts career has been quite a journey, I started as a self taught artist without any arts training in drawing and painting.  Back then, I didn't know how important having a foundation was.  I was just creating art without any rules, not because I didn't want to, but because I was just expressing myself and showing my love for Paris with paint!  Later I was taught to never use black, and ordered to stop making bold black lines! 
I learned that lesson in art school where I was constantly scolded for creating art with bold lines! I didn't know I was breaking all the rules of drawing and painting. My bold black lines was something everyone loved about my unique "childlike" style of art!  So having all the interest from art collectors while I was getting criticism in art school about my own style of painting was very confusing to me at that time...  I've already described this in previous exhibits, but if you'd like to see the webpage about my Paris Exhibition before continuing, click here.

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