Glen Knowles (Born 1952) A third generation southern Californian whose family settled in Long Beach in 1909. During the 1920’s his grandfather owned and operated the Silverado mine on Saddleback Mountain in Orange County. In the 1960’s his father was instrumental in introducing Kiwi fruit to America. Knowles graduated from Art Center College of Design in 1975 with a degree in illustration and an emphasis on painting. That same year he began receiving critiques from artist Robert Clunie, a fifty-year veteran of outdoor painting who resided in Bishop, California. Knowles received additional instruction from John Asaro, Rex Brandt, Glenn Vilppu, and Robert E. Wood.

Throughout his career he has been inspired by the early California Impressionist oil painters and California-style watercolorists, ultimately organizing six exhibitions on the history of Southern California Art and artists. Knowles loves the adventure of combining painting and travel painting across five European countries and in the John Muir wilderness of the eastern Sierra Nevada Mountains.

Knowles has also taught a variety of art classes for the last twenty years, emphasizing drawing and painting, portraiture, color theory and design, composition, and a unique class on digital life drawing. For five years he has taught classes on drawing animals from life at the Los Angels Zoo. Knowles is the inventor of the Color Wheel palette, a color theory mixing system distributed by Speedball Art Products in America and in seventy-five countries worldwide. North Light Books Splash 3, called Knowles one of Americas top 105 contemporary watercolor painters.

He has an extensive regional, national and international exhibition record, has exhibited in the last three California Art Club Gold medal exhibitions and received a First Place award in the 1999 California Art Club, Millard Sheets painting competition at the Los Angeles County Fair. Glen Knowles is a member of the National Academy of Professional Plein Air Painters and an Artist Member of the California Art Club.

First Place Award: Millard Sheets Gallery / California Art Club Paint Out, Los Angeles County Fair, September 9 -September 26, 1999. Three Visions, George Stern Fine Arts, April 17 -June 1,1999. Award, Eagle Rock Renaissance of Plein Air Painting, May 5 -May 26, 2002. Top 100 Artists for the Parks, 2002.

Biographical information:

Interview with Glen Knowles, 2009

Courtesy of: CaliforniaWatercolor.com