Raised in Lander, Wyoming, Scott Christensen settled in Jackson and became a successful painter at an early age. However, he never began painting until he was in college, but he credits his basic interest to seeing his wheel-chair bound grandfather painting. Christensen nearly had the same fate as he fractured a vertebra in a college football game and switched his energy to art from a consuming passion for sports. His initial dedication to art came from standing on a stream bank in western Nebraska, where it was quiet and beautiful. From that time, he studied numerous painting styles including Impressionism, Classicism, and Realism. He also viewed works by friend Dan Gerhartz and Swedish painter Anders Zorn, whose paintings taught him to soften edges. Christensen has also been much influenced by Russian painters Isaac Levitan and Ilya Repin. He creates both plein-air and studio paintings from quickly done field sketches, and travels widely in the western United States, roaming the outdoors with a field box, a few tubes of paint and many sheets of canvas board. Scott has won many awards along the way in his career.(Courtesy of AskArt)