Steve’s passion for fly fishing and his enjoyment of the outdoors has translated into his art with an emphasis on wildlife and landscape pieces. He has always been fascinated with fish in particular, and has an appreciation for their beautiful color combinations. He specializes in colored pencil drawings which allows him the best medium for blending colors. Usually, eight to twelve different colors are overlaid on one another to bring a unique richness to his pieces. For a change of pace, Steve dabbles in various mediums and styles from acrylic and oil to clay and book binding. He likes to experiment with spatial relationships, complimentary color combinations, abstract painting, and theme related pieces.
Steve graduated from Camas High School in 1974. His love of oil painting developed under the late Joyce Garver. After high school, he received his B.A. in Art Education in 1979 at Western Washington University and has been an educator for the past 33 years. He began his teaching career in Poulsbo, Washington spending his free time hiking extensively throughout the Olympic Peninsula. He also taught in Benton City, Washington for 5 years before moving to Grandview Middle School, also in Washington,
where he’s been teaching art for the past 23 years. Twelve years ago, he and his family moved to Selah, Washington to once again be closer to the mountains. He is married to Catherine, his wife of 30 years, and has two daughters, Kierstin 28, and Naomi 25.
Steve has had time to focus on his art more seriously in the last six years. He has painted the interior of the American Hop Museum in Toppenish, Washington, participated in the Western Art show, was one of the featured artists for the Karen Mercer-Andreasen Street Painting Festival in Prosser for eleven consecutive years, and has had his work displayed at many Yakima Valley events. He has also been the featured artist at several other events in Washington State; Chalk On the Walk, Vancouver, LaBelle Strada, Bellingham, Military Appreciation Day, Lakewood, Art on the Ave, Tacoma, Fremont Fair, Ballard, Wenatchee River Salmon Festival, Leavenworth. Additionally Steve has been a featured artist at Salt Lake City’s Chalk Art Festival since 2006, and most recently he was privileged to be featured this year at the Sarasota International Chalk Art Festival. He has designed several commissioned pieces and is currently creating and adding new work to his repertoire preparing to offer his art on this web site. He has had his work exhibited at Pacific Beach Art Studio, at the Central Washington Artists Exhibition, as well as Tucker Cellars Winery, and Red Door Gallery.
