About
Portrait Painter
I have always liked to draw and create images on paper. As a child, I would sit in church and make little comic strips and do portrait sketches of others around me. When I was old enough, I would go with my mother and paint Christmas scenes on the windows of businesses during the holidays. I always wanted to be and artist.
I studied art education at Brigham Young University and California State University, Sacramento. I was influenced by such artist-professors as James Christensen, Oliver Jackson, Jack Ogden, and Steve Kaltenbach.
After graduating, I taught art for two years in Sacramento. However, I then began to work in an industry unrelated to art for the next several years. During this time I made precious little time for my art as my wife and I began to raise our three children.
In the past two years I have been drawing and painting more and more. Some of my greatest influences are !9th Century Realists, especially Millet, L’hermitte, Daumier, and Eakins. I love the simplicity of their subjects, and their loose painting style has always appealed to me as well. The simplicity and vibrancy of the Impressionists and Post-Impressionists has also effected me a good deal. I enjoy painting everyday subjects, like regular folks working, playing, or kicking back. Landscapes and portraits also interest me. I paint with oils and watercolors.
I intend to work as a painter full time as soon as possible. I presently work half-time teaching art at Springville High School, and half time at Baer Bronze Fine Art Foundry in Springville, Utah. My wife and I live with our four children in Pleasant Grove, Utah.