I grew up in Jamestown, Indi­ana and majored in Draft­ing Tech­nol­o­gy at Vin­cennes Uni­ver­si­ty. Upon grad­u­at­ing from col­lege, I joined Bell Lab­o­ra­to­ries as a mechan­i­cal design­er which pro­vid­ed exten­sive expe­ri­ence in per­spec­tives, and spa­tial rela­tion­ships that would lat­er play a key role in the devel­op­ment of my paint­ings. Upon com­ple­tion of 6 years of ser­vice in the Air Force, I moved to Beau­mont, Texas, where I began a career in the Oil & Gas Engi­neer­ing field.

In 1991 I became inter­est­ed in paint­ing and was for­tu­nate to join a small group study­ing under the late James P. Black, an accom­plished land­scape artist resid­ing in Beau­mont, Texas. James was a high­ly tal­ent­ed artist who stud­ied under sev­er­al artists includ­ing A.D, Greer and shared his knowl­edge with those that knew him. My sub­jects of inter­est are Texas Hill Coun­try land­scapes, Blue­bon­nets, West­ern Paint­ings, Wildlife, and the Amer­i­can West.

In addi­tion to my trav­els through­out the Amer­i­can South­west and Texas Hill coun­try, my Inter­na­tion­al Oil & Gas career pro­vid­ed an oppor­tu­ni­ty to observe and study wildlife and land­scape fea­tures in the Mid­dle East, Malaysia, Africa, Nepal, Cos­ta Rica, and Aus­tralia. This expo­sure to such a diver­si­ty of geo­graph­i­cal land­scapes great­ly influ­enced my appre­ci­a­tion of the col­ors in nature and the influ­ence of atmos­pher­ic per­spec­tive. To have observed the Grand Canyon Nation­al Park in Ari­zona, the Palo Dura Canyon in Texas, the Masai Mara in Kenya, and the Flinders Ranges in the Aus­tralian out­back at sun­set, is an expe­ri­ence I will nev­er forget.

I have been blessed to par­tic­i­pate & judge in var­i­ous com­pe­ti­tions in Texas and Louisiana. The most fas­ci­nat­ing aspect for me has been meet­ing some real­ly great peo­ple and lis­ten­ing to their inter­pre­ta­tion of var­i­ous works.

Thanks so much……. John

My Pri­ma­ry Oil Col­or Palette Selec­tion is:

• Tita­ni­um White
• Alizarin Crim­son
• Quinacridone Magen­ta
• Cad­mi­um Red Light
• Cad­mi­um Yellow
• Lemon Yel­low
• Naples Yel­low
• Yel­low Ochre
• Raw Sien­na
• Burnt Umber
• Ultra­ma­rine Blue
• Cobalt Blue
• Sap Green
• Ivory Black (occa­sion­al­ly)