About the Artist

My art combines two of my greatest loves:  exploring wild places on foot and drawing with a paintbrush.  I love to stand before a scene and let it make it’s impression on me as I try to respond to and organize the beautiful complexity before me.  

I was lucky to grow up in South Lake Tahoe with miles of wilderness, mountains, lakes and creeks literally in my back yard.  I then came to Santa Barbara for college and again experienced living in a beautiful setting, this time with oak woodlands, cool chaparral canyons and the Pacific Ocean. I live there still with my life, Lauren.  We have two daughters who also enjoy drawing and being outdoors.  In addition to painting, I have taught drawing and painting to high school students for twenty-five years.  

I love that art can be used as a tool to awaken people to the beauty and  importance of natural environments and can help raise resources to protect wilderness.  I am a member of the Oak Group and SCAPE (Southern California Artists Painting for the Environment) and have been fortunate to participate in many group shows to help protect wild places.  

I love having landscape paintings as both a record of a beautiful moment spent in nature and also as a reminder to visit those places again soon.  

-Kevin Gleason