AThe color of light: page 4

Greg was working at the school part time and the balance of his hours were spent expanding his art portfolio by getting side jobs illustrating motorcycle magazines and windsurfing tour posters in watercolor. He landed a big project with the Asian Windsurfing Tour based out of Hong Kong. He was hired to do all the poster designs for each stop in the tour which included, Taiwan, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines and Saipan.

Full-Time on Saipan
In the midst of traffic gridlock while negotiating a Los Angeles freeway, Greg had an epiphany. Frustrated with the traffic, Greg reached for his mobile phone, dialed his brother on Saipan and said, "Jeffro I am coming out, selling everything, packing my things and hopefully making it as an artist on Saipan. If worse comes to worst, I'll get a 'real job'."

Arriving on Saipan in January 2003, Greg started on a painting frenzy, selling originals off the wall at Coffee Care and getting a large number of commissioned painting orders from people on island and the mainland. "I was getting a lot of very positive feedback so that led me to believe that I have a style that appeals to a broad range of people," mentions Greg.

He said, "My paintings typically are quite colorful and that captures the type of color and light you see here in Saipan. I found out early on that I needed to start making reproductions of my work as I was selling my paintings too quickly."

Greg offers on his website many of this paintings as open edition, eight color ink jet prints matted and packaged at 8" x 10", 11" x 14" and 16" x 20" sizes. He also uses a new generation of long lasting and fade resistant inks with permanence up to 100 years.

For the past few years Greg has had a gallery within DFS Galleria which has expanded his work into the tourists markets such as Japan, Korea, China and Russia. "This has been such a boost for my business resulting in over one hundred small originals sold and more than a thousand prints and greeting cards. I can now offer everyone a little piece of what I do by opening up my work into the print market, allowing very reasonable prices," says Greg. Regardless, his original paintings remain at a reasonable price range of $100 to $900 dollars, including framing that Greg does himself.

Soon after starting at DFS, Greg produced a number of paintings of Guam and entered that market. He now has a Guam print and greeting cards line in a number of retailers there including DFS Hilton, JP Superstore, Two Lovers' Point Gallery, and soon Pacific Islands Club. He has also just recently added his Saipan print line to PIC Saipan.

On Style and Planning

For Greg, "style is something that comes naturally to an artist over time. First you learn the fundamentals of drawing, tone and color and then your style will evolve naturally. After all, a painting is ultimately a reflection of the artist." Defining his own style, Greg said this involves capturing dynamic movement and color. He mentions, "More recently I am trying to capture the feeling, the mood, and the emotion (of people) in the paintings. I am also quite interested in giving some of my future paintings a bit of a fantasy or surreal twist."

Before he starts a piece, Greg does a lot of planning. He believes that is essential in achieving a successful painting. According to Greg, in every project he starts with a number of small thumbnail sketches to work out the line and tone design and not worrying about color at this stage. "I will continually resolve the design until I come up