 As a student, he was an abstract expressionist painter, but after happening upon the work of Flemish realists, while studying at the Academy of Fine Arts, in Florence, Italy, and departing for Northern Europe to view more Netherlandish work, he turned toward representational painting, primarily still lifes and figure work.Many of his still lifes are symbolic and, although often described as a realist or hyperrealist, in a 1988 interview he remarked, "I don't think I'm a realist...I'm an illusionist.