Jake Gaedtke

Like most landscape painters, Jake loved the outdoors and he grew up spending a great deal of time camping, fishing, hiking and exploring. As a teenager of sixteen Jake's parents allowed him to take the two year Famous Artist Course for Young People. A correspondence art course that started him on a path of learning and discovery of the art world. A high school art teacher fresh out of college bellowed the fire inside of Jake through his passion, enthusiasm, and love for drawing, painting, and art history. His personal interest in learning and growing as an artist is something that has never left him. Having spent years on other career paths, he always struggled with his desire to paint full time. After spending a few years doing graphic design and illustration, Jake decidied to take a plein air workshop with the landscape painter Jay Moore. His experience in that workshop finally convinced him that this is what he wanted to do. Jake took two more workshops with Jay when he invited Jake to take his newly formed one-on-one Mentorship program. After five grueling months of extremely hard work and study, Jake's growth as an artist took a professional turn and he hasn't looked back since.

* This statement has been provided directly by the artist in association to their 15^th International ARC Salon entries. This content has not been edited for typos or grammatical errors and has not been vetted for accuracy.