leonard sampierSometimes I see someone’s auto license frame that will say, “I’d rather be surfing” or something like that, well, if I had one on my auto it would say, “I’d Rather Be Sketching.”
Whenever my family would get together, for sure, they would always play Rook. Not me! The only game I enjoy playing is Chinese Checkers, and yet I’m not really a game-liking person and have never even played games on the computer.
I loved the lines that my father-in-law had in his facial features and so that is what I decided to capture when he was playing Rook one time.
I took a course in portraiture and enjoyed learning, and I got to where I could get the likeness of a person, but then I would always end up saying, ‘…might as well use a camera!’ I would end up so stressed out and tense trying so hard to get the likeness of a person. I gave up doing portraits. I can say I did it and accomplished what I wanted to do, but would rather spend my time getting the essence of a landscape, en plein aire.
When you paint for over 30 years, you actually find out what you really like to do in your art.