I was born in 1952 in Los Angeles and grew up on Long Beach. My parents must have known I was going to be a plein air painter by giving me a first and last name that describe landscape features! A glen is an opening in a forest and a knoll is a small hill!

My father was an old steam car nut! He owned and operated many Stanley Steamers, among other steam cars, that dated from 1901 through 1924. As a boy I spent many afternoons at old car meets and various private garages full of old cars, parts and other dusty antiques. Recently, a good friend convinced me to let him work on our 1902 Stanley. I helped and tried not to slow him down too much. Built at the same moment the Wright Brothers were testing their airplane at Kittyhawk, the little wood-bodied car ran under it's own power for the first time in 95 years in July of 2000.

My father retired to Big Pine, California, just south of Bishop where I graduated from the High School there. My class of 28 was the largest graduating class ever. My love of outdoor painting, skiing, fly fishing, backpacking and camping was all forged in the Eastern Sierra.

When I graduated from Art Center College of Design in 1975, my education was as an illustrator who works from photos and meets deadlines. That same year I met and apprenticed under Robert Clunie, a Bishop painter, who had painted on location since 1929. His insistence that a plein air artist should work strictly from life set the stage for my 25-plus year pursuit of painting out-of-doors. Even today, I use a photograph less than once a year. In the 1970's, my way of working was to spend from three to ten days on location building up my paintings in a series of thin layers in oil. I always had a pair of 7X binoculars at hand to study the elements of nature that were not clearly discernible to the naked eye.

I spent a month each summer setting up and running a painting camp at 11,000+ foot elevation in the North Fork of Big Pine Canyon. As a professional oil painter in the late 1970's, I fell under the spell of the Early California Impressionists such as Edgar Payne, Guy Rose, and William Wendt.

Beginning the 1980's as a watercolor painter, I pursued the objectives of creating a painting by the most spontaneous means possible. My heroes were John Singer Sargent and Emil Kosa Jr. Today I love to switch back and forth between oil and watercolor painting to push my skills of on location painting.

My wife Pam and I were married in 1986. Our married life started with a very small $200 wedding and a 44 day honeymoon - in England. We drove a rental car with a learner's sign on it's bumper all over the country and stayed mostly in Bed & Breakfast Inns! Pam introduced me to overseas travel and we have since made several trips to Europe visiting Spain, Portugal, France, Italy, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium, Scotland and Luxembourg. We have two sons who have become seasoned travelers as well.

Some of my greatest joys in this work are the other artists I have known, apprenticed under, and painted with, and the realization that I have a life's work ahead of me with a lifetime of learning. No matter how many periods of art or artist's lives and work I study, I am reminded again and again of how little I know. As I return to nature to paint, I realize that I have barely scratched the surface. And I know that I will return to try again another day!

I create in plein air because it is one of the most difficult and rewarding activities I have ever attempted. It tests me. Plein-air painting challenges me to do my best and rewards me with just enough growth and insight to keep trying. It has changed the way I look at the world. I have chosen to spend my life in the pursuit of nature's light! I live with the hope that I will someday paint a painting that approximates the incredible paintings I see in my mind's eye, and feel in my heart!

Glen - Hanging In There

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