Randy paints exclusively on the iPad Pro tablet, using the Apple Pencil stylus and digital painting apps that include tools that simulate pencil, pen, watercolor, and other media. He uses whichever painting tool is appropriate for the task, and his paintings have their own unique flavor and defy association with any particular physical medium. 

 

His style is realist in the tradition of Thomas Moran and Andrew Wyeth. Sadly, people tend to put realism and “digital painting” together to mean “doctored photo.”  Though Randy uses photos for reference and sometimes sketch tracing of complex elements, his paintings are first drawn and then painted stroke-by-stroke just as other artists do on paper or canvas.

 

Randy travels widely in the West in his home-made camper, seeking elements of ocean, mountain, or desert landscapes and details that move him. These are collected on his phone camera for later use. Painting happens just about anywhere indoors, but not plein air since screen glare makes the iPad unsuited for painting in the field.

 

He and his wife Gunvor have lived in Port Angeles since 2004.