He then worked for many years as a commercial artist at various advertising agencies in New York. The demands of commercial art led Ray back to his passion of creating fine art in his spare time. It was the structured regimen of commercial art during the day, that led Ray to develop a bright, spontaneous impressionistic style in his painting, not only in his brush strokes but his lively sense of color. Ray strives to achieve a luminous sense of light, color and shadows in his landscape scenes. While having experimented with many mediums, he returned to his love the oil and acrylic medium several years ago.

“The oil or acrylic painting medium offers me the truest interpretation of my palette. The vibrancy of color I placed on my canvas then is as vivid now as the day I painted it.”

Ray has returned to his parents birthplace of Venice, Italy many times for inspiration for his art. His annual sojourn to the Florida Keys is also pivotol in keeping his paintings new and fresh.

Ray has exhibited in New York City, Atlanta, Tampa, Jacksonville, Key West, Melbourne, Delray Beach, Daytona and St. Augustine and throughout Florida.

His artwork is worldwide and is in Norway, England, Wales, Italy, Japan and India, to name a few and has won numerous awards in Florida. His main influences in his life has been N.C. Wyeth, John Singer Sargent, Edward Hopper and Peter Max, whom he was honored to have met in New York at an exhibit several years ago.

His love of St. Augustine is profound.