I finished this painting, Winner!, last year. I’ve taken thousands of photographs at amusement parks and fairs over the last few years, and I’m using them to design the series of paintings. Winner!, for example, is based on two photographs. I use the photos as my starting point.

Before I got my good Nikons, I used others’ photos: photos I bought, were given to me, or were in the public domain. This method led to problems. I couldn’t ensure the “public domain” photos were actually in the public domain. I worried that someone might claim copyright infringement. So, I bought my first Nikon and never worried about it again.

I’ve done a lot of painting and drawing directly from the model, and I plan to do more. When I lived in New Jersey, I attended weekly live model drawing sessions in Princeton, where I met several good artists. I live in the boondocks now, and finding artists’ models is not as simple as it is on the East Coast.

A camera lets me capture things that are impossible in the studio. My current camera and lens selection let me capture fast-moving subjects, like people flying along roller coasters. Winner! isn’t one of those fast-moving subjects, but I have several of them in hand.

Winner! is 40″ x 56″.