North County Painting

Sebastian DiFranco was born in St. Louis Missouri in 1943. He graduated from St. Louis University with a B.S. in psychology. He studied art with wildlife artist Bob Sadler but was mostly self-taught. Literature, philosophy, and physics piqued his interest as well, and have had a profound impact on his life. His early paintings were naturalistic and as he progressed, he painted surrealistic paintings then added abstract paintings to his styles. Later Sebastian combined the styles of naturalistic, surrealistic, and abstract. In 1971 Sebastian moved to the California coast where he started a family. He drew inspiration for some of his paintings from the natural beauty of the Pacific Ocean. In 2019 he moved to North Carolina to live closer to his daughter and grandchildren where he enjoys going for walks in the forest while admiring the variety of trees and plants in the region. In addition to all the inspirational art Sebastian has seen, he draws motivation from the painting process itself. He loves to put paint on a surface and have the freedom to paint what he wants no matter the style. He usually plans his paintings to a point but as the creative process unfolds enjoys the element of surprise by the variety of outcomes.