I’ve been involved with making art my entire life. It was my grandmother who introduced me to drawing, painting, ceramics and poetry. Ever since, these avenues have been my means to explore the mysteries of my internal and external worlds.

After a happy and successful career as lawyer I knew exactly what I wanted to do. I went back to school, enrolling in a three-year intensive drawing and painting program at the Florence Academy of Art in Florence Italy. The curriculum was patterned on the 19th century atelier programs designed to train professional painters in the techniques of such masters as Sargent, Zorn and Sorolla.

The loose but exacting style of these 19th century artists along with the modern masters such as Andrew Wyeth, are my primary painting influences.

I am also influenced in my subject matter and process by my growing up in the open natural spaces of Montana and my subsequent studies in Buddhism, looking ever more closely but gently into the present moment and our relationship to that moment.

My wife and I spend half the year in the mountains of Montana and the other half near the ocean. My painting currently is concentrated on the landscapes of those areas but I also love painting portraits.

Photo credit: Bob Colin