Tim Phelan

I was born, raised and lived most of my life in the South Bay Area in Northern California. I majored in Art-Painting at San Jose State University in the late 1970s where I studied under Fred Spratt, Stuart Baron, and Randall Sadler among others. However, I consider myself mostly self taught in painting and in the knowledge of art history. At 12 years of age I saw a huge Van Gogh exhibit which had a big impact on me. Shortly thereafter I got into artists such as Picasso, Pollock, Miro, Klee, Goya, and the old masters.

Although I have painted all my life I have only just recently begun to focus on my art career and consider myself a late emerging artist. My work is owned by collectors throughout the world.

One of the things that sets me apart from other artists in my opinion is that I like to explore different styles, from figurative surrealism type works to abstract expressionism, lyrical abstraction to minimalism to what others have called maximalism. Picasso is probably my favorite artist of all time and one of the lessons I learned from him was that an artist shouldn't be limited to one style.

San Jose State University 1975 - 1980