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Exploring the forests and mountains of
Oregon
and
Montana
as a child gave Chuck Volz an early appreciation for the landscape and the
forces of nature at work. He excelled at drawing from an early age and
received encouragement from family and teachers, particularly a high
school fine arts teacher. He enrolled at the
University
of
Oregon
to study Art and graduated from the
University
of
California
at
Berkeley
with a degree in German. He lived in
Germany
for several years during which he painted in an abstract expressionist
style. Upon returning to this country he rediscovered the beauty of the
western landscape and started to paint "en plein air". A chance
encounter with the legendary landscape painter Ray Strong changed his
life. “It was Ray who introduced me to the personal poetry of painting
and the joy of painting the landscape.” He hasn’t looked back. For the
past twenty years he has painted the
California
and Southwestern landscape. He currently lives in northern
New Mexico
on the
Rio Grande
.
In addition to Ray Strong, Volz considers his most influential teachers to
be
Michael Lynch and David Ballew.
His work is included in numerous private and corporate collections.
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