I am the fifth in a family of seven and many of us are artists and writers; most famous is novelist, Susan Minot, whose first book, "Monkeys". was about all of us as when we were young. I am a painter, an artist who started painting as a little boy and continued from that without any formal training or college. I lived a transient life where I went to other cheaper countries to paint during the winter months and then returned to an island in Maine from April to November. I now have settled in Maine, buying a house in a coastal town .