Michael Schlicting is a painter whose work reflects a lifetime of visual exploration and emotional resonance with the natural world. Raised in an artistic household, he was surrounded by creativity from a young age, but his early interests also included athletics—he became one of the top small-college basketball players in the country and even participated in the Portland Trail Blazers rookie camp during his college years. A required art class in college revealed Schlicting’s innate artistic ability and set the course for a career as a professional artist. Since graduation, he has devoted himself full-time to painting, making a living through his art—a rare and notable achievement. One of his earliest champions was arts patron J.W. “Bill” Fisher, whose support and personal encouragement helped foster Schlicting’s development and confidence as a painter. Schlicting draws much of his inspiration from travel and place. Frequent journeys to Italy, especially Tuscany, have informed many of his landscapes, capturing the light, color, and mood of the region. His work has also been influenced by travels in South America, including Chile, as well as his beloved Oregon coast and other global locales. Over a career spanning more than four decades, his paintings have been included in thousands of public, corporate, and private collections around the world. His multi-layered paintings are rooted in nature’s abstract forms—rhythms of land, sea, sky, and light—and emphasize mood and feeling over literal representation. Through a rich visual language of color and composition, Schlicting’s work seeks to evoke the sensations and emotional responses inherent in the landscapes and cultures he experiences. Schlicting lives in Portland, Oregon, and spends summers at his studio and gallery on the Oregon coast, where he continues to paint, teach, and share his artistic vision