A self taught Arkansan, except for brief stints at Memphis Academy of Arts and California College of Arts and Crafts. As a southern teenager he used Art News’ “Tworkov paints a Picture, etc.” as a launching pad to produce brushy portraits. Exhibiting career began after a move to the San Francisco Bay Area (1965). Back in the studio and back in Arkansas (late seventies), produced national shows of paintings and sculptures. In 1990, married Deborah Madison and moved to New Mexico and western landscapes became part of the mix of subjects. He revisited the portrait brush in the nineties, falling into an open salon way-of-working known as Pat’s Downtown Club. Showed the portraits at SITE Santa Fe, then took the project on the road to California in 1998 and the Birmingham Museum of Art in 2001.