Color Festival Print

Native Utahn Contemporary Impessionist. Born 1975. Still living in Utah. (Pretty spoiled by the natural beauty I guess. I highly recommend visiting) My love for art began at a very young age. Some of my first memories are watching my father at his drafting board and being amazed at the creative process of bringing thoughts to life without words. I loved the comic strip in the newspaper and drew many many cartoons for my grade-school pals to giggle about. Throughout school I took almost every art class I could. Perhaps from my love of cartoons I soon fell in love with the work of Van Gogh. It's no use trying to hide what a huge inspiration he has on my artwork. My college career didn't last long as life's responsibilities gave way to working overtime hours as a concrete mason. With little time and money as a young man there are few early paintings. Most of my creative passion was once again invested in funny little drawings to make my wife and young boys laugh. After a near 20 year hiatus one day I found my old brush set in storage along with dried paint tubes hard as concrete. My passion was reignited! Oddly enough I thought to myself my impressionist styling and quick meaningful thick strokes were as they were 20 yrs. Previous. There are a few paintings in other styles, but I try not to refine it too much as I just can't fathom not painting straight from my soul. Why push the river? Now I am a self employed house painter by day, and in my free time I am blessed to express my impression of the world on canvas in oil. I love backpacking, mt. biking, canoeing, fly fishing and rock climbing. The great outdoors is my muse and more often than not finds a prevalence in my works. Beauty is in the eye of the brush-holder . -J. Kohler