Noel’s passion for drawing and painting has been a life long pursuit. The only time he can remember when not being involved in fine art was when he was a teenager and his interests turned from drawing and painting to building model cars and boats out of wood. Noel returned to fine art when he was in the army. " I would go to the library and tried to forget about my homesickness. During one of those visits I was flipping through a magazine and saw a picture of Donald Sutherland with long hair, a beard and a headband. At that moment the desire to draw came back to me. I purchased a pad and charcoal and did a charcoal drawing of him. In 1971, after Noel was discharged from the Army he began his formal training in fine art. "I was working full time and studing drawing and painting in the evenings and weekends.
Noel’s initial interest in art was figurative painting. However, he soon turned to painting landscapes on location ("en plein air" ) "As a result of my formal training, I gained a strong appreciation of working from life". For the past thirty years Noel has had a love affair with plein air painting. "Thirty years ago plein air painting wasn’t back in fashion yet. I was pretty isolated from the art world. With the exception of one of my former teachers, I didn’t know of any other artist that worked "en plein air". My training was in figure drawing and painting in a studio under controlled conditions. Plein air painting presented a new set of challenges such as weather and changing light conditions that I had to learn to compensate for".
"The process I use when painting "en plein air" is a very spontaneous one. I prefer to paint wet into wet, utilizing a direct painting method (Alla Prima) in which each brush stroke is intended to be the finished stroke. Just about all of my painting are completed in one painting session. This method of painting is very demanding, requiring a high level of concentration. There isn’t much time to analyze what you want to do. You follow your instincts and just do it." Though Noel does do studio paintings from reference material, eighty-five percent of his work is "en plein air". Noel is a "Signature Member" of New York Plein Air Painters. He currently resides with his wife Patricia on Long Island in Valley Stream, New York.
