I remember watching my grandmother paint when I was little. It was one of her hobbies, along with tending the beautiful rose garden in her quaint home in Walla Walla, Washington. My family moved to Alaska when I was seven years old, and my grandmother gave me an oil painting kit to take with me, and told me to paint in Alaska because it is such a beautiful place. I have been an oil painter ever since. I majored in painting in college and work as an artist full time with my wife in our studio in beautiful downtown Anchorage, Alaska. In the summer time, we spend quite a bit of time in a small town at the end of a dirt road called McCarthy where we built a log cabin on our ten-acre wooded lot. My wife quit her job after she graduated with a Masters degree in Business Administration, and works full time on our art business, taking care of marketing, sales, and business development. I am very lucky to have her working with me.

You can tell from my art that I am a beer enthusiast. I am a home brewer, and enjoy sampling craft brews. In 2006 I painted a series called the Color of Beer, which consisted of ten oil paintings of pint glasses ranging in style and color from pale to dark stout. That was my first sold-out art show. So I decided to paint more paintings of beer, and embarked on painting the 99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall series, which took me about four years. The project was very successful, and now I am known as the "beer artist" in Anchorage. In 2014 I painted a new beer painting every day, and the series is called the Year of Beer Paintings.

I also paint Alaska landscapes, urban-scapes, and scenes that portray human's interaction with nature. I paint with oils on wood panel and on canvas. I prefer to paint on panel because it is more durable than canvas, but when I do paint on canvas, I build the supports and stretch the canvases myself. Each painting surface is coated with several coats of primer and the last two coats are red and gold paint. The gold paint shines through small gaps in the oil paint, making my paintings glow when light hits them at certain angles. This is my signature technique. Whenever possible I paint subjects from life, rather than from photographs, and often paint outside on location (in plein air). I use artist-grade oil paint that has rich pigments and smooth texture.

I accept commissions of any subject matter. Thank you for visiting our Etsy shop!

Check out my RedBubble Shop, featuring my art on clothing, home decor, stationery, and more: http://www.redbubble.com/people/realartisbetter/shop/