By the time I was in high school at the Lakeside School in Seattle, I was already selling my paintings to fellow students and their parents.

Journalism and writing in general took over when I started college, but I never lost my love of art or completely quit producing an occasional piece. Most of these paintings and sketches are lost to me now (as most young artists' work is lost to them). However, a few grizzled survivors are pictured below.

These pieces are representative of my early work, I think, in that my favored medium was always pencil. (Perhaps this is why I found digital media so attractive -- it essentially allows the pencil to simulate every other type of media, and mix them in ways that are impossible with traditional media.) 

Looking at these pieces, though, I'm sorry I don't have any of my oils to show. I particularly wish I had a painting of a red candle on the window ledge of Rondi Johnson and my Queen Anne Hill apartment in Seattle that I painted late one night in 1974. 

As I recall, I traded it to a Tacoma friend named John Terrien for a Fairport Convention album called "Unhalfbricking." Haven't seen John, the painting or the album in 30 years. Another lost night...

-- B.B.