Howard R. Perkins was raised in northern Arizona where his vistas were the vast sandstone canyon lands and dramatic plateaus. Undoubtedly, the bright and vivid colors of the Great American Southwest have influenced his painting style with his choice of strong warm and cool colors. He graduated from Arizona State University, majoring in Art and Architecture and later established his own successful architectural business. His firm designed large office buildings for technology and communications companies as well as major publilc buildings throughout Northern California. Today Howard lives in the Central Coast town of Pacific Grove, California, where he pursues the love of those early years through a career in fine art, painting and drawing the ocean, cliffs and Central Coast oak forests in sunshine, wind and fog. His work is found in numerous private collections throughout the US and Europe. Howard believes that a good painting has a special spark to it, enough reality so the viewer can understand what is there, yet has enough mystery that he or she will visually fill in what is implied. While his drawings are highly detailed, his paintings suggest, without over-defining, and are evocative of mood and atmosphere.