Artist Bio

Hello to all of you from Steve Randahl!  Welcome to my Pen & Ink website.  I'm an artist, musician, composer, performer, programmer, project manager, author and webmaster.  I live with my wife and two dogs in Cary, Illinois, which is northwest of Chicago and about 20 miles south of the Wisconsin-Illinois border. 

 Pen and Ink art has always been one of my favorite art media.  The strong contrast between black and white and the varying shades of gray make for stunning artwork.  

 I began by creating pen and ink renderings of all the homes my wife and children and I inhabited which quickly led to drawing the houses of our families and friends.  I really was not prepared for the genuine gratitude and heartfelt emotion from each recipient.  I should have been.  The tiniest, most humble house is home to the dweller.  It’s the place around which our lives revolve.   My wife loves the drawing I did of our first townhouse, where we moved with our baby daughter.  It also became home to our new son and first dog – which quickly got bigger than both of the children combined!  We met some of our best and most lasting friends in that neighborhood – and started making the memories that the drawing recalls.  I love drawing homes for the strong, reminiscent tugs they evoke.

 The pen & ink medium is particularly suited to homes and other buildings.  It's also exacting in that once the ink goes down on the paper it's a done deal.  There's no "painting" over it, no erasing it.  My strength lies in rendering structural scenes.  I like the straight lines and strong images that define buildings and take artistic license with trees, shrubs and other landscape elements.  Sometimes I have fun adding the mere suggestion of people in or about the buildings.  Each drawing is unique in that despite size, the level of detail varies according to the subject.   Some of my best fun in developing the drawing is determining when “less is more.” 
 I hope as you visit my website that you, too, will find enjoyment in the pen & ink medium and let me know if I can create a pen & ink drawing for you.  Thanks for visiting – cone back again, as my gallery is updated every week or so.  Maybe your home will grace my gallery, too!  And if you'd like, visit my blog page.

 If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact me.     (Email me!)

     Sincerely,

     Steve Randahl

Artist Bio