"I believe art is an escape for most people. It takes them to places they've never been before, or it returns them to places they love. That's what I enjoy most about painting landscapes. Painting is neither a hobby nor a past time for me, it is a calling...it is something I have to do every day."
I was born and raised in Arkansas. My wife, Sandra, and I have six wonderful children. Early in my adulthood fly fishing was my passion. In my 20's I frequented the world-famous trout rivers of Arkansas.
Back in 1998, we had a newborn baby and two toddlers. Needless to say, my time on the river vanished as my commitments at home grew more significant. Yet I still longed to get to the river. I remember sitting in a doctor's office one day reading a Field and Stream magazine. In that magazine I read an article about an artist who lived in Montana and painted trout. His paintings were astonishing! That night I went home to my family, but I could not forget the images of Mike's trout paintings.
That evening, as I was trying to fall asleep, I kept thinking to myself, "That would be the perfect hobby for me. It would connect me to my passion for trout fishing and I would have a hobby I could do at the dining room table after we put the kids down for the night." Having never had an art lesson, I said to myself, "If he can paint trout, I can too". So, I bought some watercolors, paint brushes, and watercolor paper; then set out on a three-year journey to teach myself to paint. I had absolutely no idea what I was doing. I would stay up at night, sometimes until 2:00 or 3:00am, paint fish and finally go to sleep, only to wake up a few hours later to go to work. I did this for years and eventually, I got surprisingly good at painting fish. I learned that if you do something long enough and with enough perseverance, eventually you master it. That's when I knew I could learn to paint anything. As time passed, people began asking me to paint life-sized portraits of trout they had caught and released. I began painting professionally while still working a full-time job. I painted fish for 15 years.
At the encouragement of a fellow artist, I switched from watercolors to oils and began expanding my subject matter to include Rocky Mountain landscapes I had seen as a child on family adventures to Colorado, New Mexico, Wyoming, and South Dakota. As my art evolved, I honed in on Rocky Mountain landscapes, especially aspen trees and snow capped mountains. To say the least, it was magical for me.
I am a self-taught artist, and it took me years of practice, thousands of paintings, hundreds of books, and a few workshops to perfect my style and my subject matter. Today, I am a professional artist represented by galleries in Colorado, Utah, Montana, and New Mexico. My unique, trademark style is characterized by bold colors and strong palette knife strokes. My wife and I still live in Arkansas, raising the last of our six children, four of whom are grown. My role as a father, husband and artist has brought immense joy to my life. I'm one of the lucky ones.
