I was born and grew up in Germany. Painting and drawing has been a passion of mine since I was a teenager. I used to spend many hours looking at the old master paintings from the various art books which I found in my parents book shelf. At some time I considered attending art school but eventually I ended up studying electrical engineering. My work in high tech caused me to relocate to the San Francisco Bay area together with my wife in 1996. We have been living in the East Bay ever since. At some point I decided that I had to study painting more seriously and my search for a teacher from whom I could learn the techniques used by the old masters led me to join the Atelier School of Classical Realism where I am studying with David Hardy since September 2009.