View Drew's website My oils reflect the light and life that I've experienced in my native California. Born in Hollywood and educated at UCLA, I've always been captivated by the diversity of nature expressed in the California landscape. During my twenties, I left California to practice geology thoroughout the western U.S. and Africa. Though every location has its beauty, it's difficult to find a single area that combines the savannas of Africa, the rugged mountains of Wyoming, and the most beautiful coastline in the world. Southern California does that for me. As a geologist-turned-artist, my paintings are all about light, surfaces of earth, and history. I want to convey moods and time through my work. I realize that what I paint now will be, to future generations, what California used to look and feel like. To me, that is what is important, and that is what I try to capture. Recently, I've begun to paint more of the urban landscape and less of the natural landscape. To live in an area with 15 million other people, and exclude their activities from my paintings, was somehow not true to my vision. Humans and human activities are part of nature, and just like in nature, one sometimes has to search to find the beauty.....but it is always there.