ARTIST: John Taft (New Jersey, Colorado, 20/21 century) NAME: Landscape - Lake Ontario (titled on verso) MEDIUM: pastel on paper CONDITION: Excellent. Framed under glass. SIGHT SIZE: 11 x 8 inches / 27 x 20 cm FRAME SIZE: 17 x 14 inches / 43 x 35 cm SIGNATURE: lower right and on verso CATEGORY: antique vintage painting AD: ART CONSIGNMENTS WANTED. CONTACT US SKU#: 118182 US Shipping $49 + insurance. BIOGRAPHY: John Taft studied art and design at Rochester Institute of Technology in New York, and illustration at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California on a scholarship. In 2004, he left a successful 18 year career as a designer and art director, and moved with his family from New York to Colorado to pursue painting as a career. He knew he wanted to work toward becoming a full-time landscape painter and also live in the place he painted. During his first year in Colorado he spent much time in the Rocky Mountain National Park where he sketched and painted for hours: the lakes, mountains, streams, flowers and fields. Today the inspiration for his landscape paintings still stems from being on location in all seasons to do sketches in pencil and oil and to take occasional photographs. Taft never tires of painting Colorado terrain because there is so much variety just a few hours from his front door. His intent is to convey the profound visual beauty he sees in the landscape. "I have come to see the arts in general as a gift to mankind and beauty as nourishment to the human spirit. This gives me a sense of purpose as an artist," he says. "The landscape has always spoken to me, even from my earliest memories growing up in the country working the fields on my father's tree nursery in Western New York. At best, the mundane can become music, even a symphony. Painting for me is translating to canvas what the eye ˜hears, and doing so in way that considers the lessons of the artists who have come before." John has received the top Award of Excellence for Landscape at the Oil Painters of America National Exhibition twice, and most recently received Fine Art Connoisseur's magazines Award of Excellence at the National Western Club show in Denver. John lives with his wife and four children live in Longmont, Colorado.