My Journey Back into Art

Ever since I was a young teen I had loved art, pencil drawing, and painting. I have periodically through the years of my life, picked up a pencil, or a brush and drawn or painted something that caught my eye. I had given sketches to friends and family. I guess you would have to call it a past time, since it wasn't something I did all the time or studied.

When Cindy and I lived in Whittier in the early years of our marriage, we purchased a very old but damaged stained glass window from an antique store. Our thought was to reframe it and hang it in a window in the house to catch the light from its design. Like other such frivoulous purchases, the window languished for many years in our garage because I found how costly it was to repair it. No wonder it was so inexpensive! One day, a friend at work was showing me pictures of stained glass windows that he had designed and built for his home. I asked him if he could repair an old window I had bought some years ago. He said he could, but said why don’t you take a class and learn how to fix it yourself? I replied, where would I do that? Isn’t it expensive to take classes like that? He laughed and said, no, not if you enroll in a adult school class at night, it is pretty inexpensive. Needless to say, I did enroll in a class and learned how to make leaded stained glass windows and repair the old one we had purchased so many years before. I was fortunate to have a funny, excentric and challenging teacher who became a great friend and mentor. Stained glass didn't just become a hobby, it became a passion and then a side business that I called Reflections in Glass.

For many years thereafter, I designed and built custom stained glass windows for clients all over Whittier and other towns where friends referred me to clients as a side business. That was my art outlet for over fifteen years and brought me many hours of pleasure building something beautiful that would outlive me. I believe that is the goal of every artist, to build a legacy of art for others to enjoy.


When we made the decision to move to Northern California we packed up everything and began a new life in new and more beautiful surroundings. I began a new job in a challenging environment that took me all over the state, and any of my free time was devoted to my children or our garden. Our new home in the country was on an acre, and easily eight times bigger than our little lot in the city. I put a lot of my design ideas to work in the garden, and selected plants and trees to bring color to the seasons. I would sketch flower beds and layout paths on paper before I ever turned a shovel full of dirt. I planted beds of bulbs and built rose gardens and arbors to make our garden a special and beautiful place to be any time of year. Every tree and flower was chosen for what it would bring to the garden. During this time, my other art skills languished and were put on hold because there just wasn’t time in our busy lives.

I was pushed to pick up a pencil and paper by my daughter Amber, who had graduated from high school and was attending college. She like my son Colin had shown an interest in art. Colin took it seriously and studied to be a computer Graphic Designer and is enjoying success working in his field. It is great to see that my children have a love for art and design.  Amber was more into painting, and wanted to try water colors, and then oils. We bought her the necessary tools for Christmas or her birthdays and she began painting and decorating the walls of her room. She encouraged me to get back into art, and one day we went to Dawn’s Art Supplies and purchased sketch books for an outing. It was fun to pick up a pencil and draw again. Unfortunately, while I enjoyed it, I did not continue drawing. I was too busy doing private consulting work and addressing projects at home. Then too, my encourager got married, and moved away with her husband. They eventually moved back closer, finding a nice place in Lincoln. It gave Amber and I the opportunity to take hikes and photography forays into the mountains and canyons around these beautiful foothills.

Cindy too, had made a number of hints about me getting back into art. She knew that while I loved stained glass, that it was hard on my neck to get back into that work. Once in a while she would show me an art class being given at Sierra College that I could take. It was her brain storm and creative thinking that really made the difference, when she thought outside the box for my sixty-sixth birthday present. 

Tune in for my introduction into pastel painting in my next blog.