I am here pictured with an oil painting of the American Flag that I made at my Toronto Island studio in January 2023 just before I began my LLC.  Since my first show there have been avid collectors who simply wanted to have what I felt strongly I wanted to create, who felt they couldn’t find my kind of paintings anywhere else, and for that I am very thankful. For years, though, I have wanted to be in greater control of how my art reaches people. Because I love the journey of finding subjects to paint in person, then the process of making the painting with them, and then the terrific interaction between myself, the painting, and the final owner of that painting. It’s all delight, every part of it. 

On establishing my company, I’ve changed my relationship with my galleries, so that now I am more in contact with my clients than the gallery model allows. It’s thrilling to be in public exhibits, especially when the critics you respect are on the jury, and the beautiful show is reviewed well. As lovely as the gallerists are, and there are so many with whom I’ve had great business relationships and great friendships, there are some built in problems to the model. To make their bricks and mortar overhead and various other reasons, they must charge the clients too much in my opinion. And they must give the artist too little in my opinion. And as well meaning as the gallerists have been, they do not interact with the collectors as I would because I truly love my collectors. So I have all the time in the world to answer questions, talk over framing choices and preservation, placing paintings in unique architectural situations. The collectors response to work has nothing to do with business, it’s all passion. Just like me, as an artist, making the work wholly with passion. 

It’s emotional. It’s personal. I see my art in the homes of families growing up together, above the important dinners and long talks, my art brings something of beauty to the memories of all those wonderful adults, elderly, and children, it’s a deep expression of our shared humanity. My work is all about the human, ie the human hand in the way the paint stroke drags along the page, the human breath in the timing of making a painting in person, where temperature, breeze, time of day, and the feelings between myself and the subject affect everything. 

KDL INTL LLC my new company has two stores with two connected purposes. The first store, Ludwig Pictures, features my paintings of the last few years in over twenty years of making art for exhibitions in London, Toronto, New York, DC, and Paris. I am very prolific painting almost every day, and it was at a point where if I wanted collectors to easily find what they wanted I needed to catalogue it all, so here it is. I wanted to make possible an original art gallery purchase experience, in the space and light of the collectors’ own homes. The second store, Ludwig Express, is suddenly enormous and ever expanding because I have always wanted my art to be with people every day, in fashion and decor, with joy and color and lively shapes in every place of our lives. I saw while designing that it was as euphoric for me as it was for the shoppers. 

I launched the company stores last week, and the orders rolling in are thrilling. Though I work long into the night — breaking to run Dove the company Bullador (and beloved friend) — I continue to paint every day: flowers and places and people I love, in watercolor and acrylic and oils. I was dubbed a Modern Populist painter by the late critic for the Toronto Star, and though my heart is with the artists of earlier centuries from whom I’ve learned so much, I know that being an artist Now, in a post-Marshall McLuhan time (he was another of my influential teachers), I have the internet to reach all my new collectors. I want my art, on the wall, on the body, in the home, in the office, in school, at the beach, available for everyone. This exciting launch month, as I design and send out all these dresses splashed with color and high energy men’s and women’s gym clothes and bright little purses and sweet kids’ clothes all over the world. As I get the calls from my dear collectors and wonderful new friends-of-friends-of-collectors, I am packaging with care each painting personally, and signing, dating, placing, and delivering each painting with a personal message. Thank you.

Welcome to my first blog post — may you enjoy choosing my paintings for your own as much as I have enjoyed making them!,