CV
EDUCATION
American Academy of Art, Chicago, 1979 to 1981.
Oil with Eugene Hall, watercolor with Irving Shapiro.
CONTINUING STUDY
Workshops with Elizabeth Tolley, Thomas W. Schaller, Marcia Burtt, Ray Roberts, Errol Jacobson,
John C. Traynor, Kathie Odom (Fontaine de Vaucluse, France), Daniel Keys, Mark Boedges, Richie Carter,
Matt Ryder, and Vanessa Rothe (Making the Leap, Normandy, France).
SELECTED AWARDS
2026 First Place, Cashiers Plein Air Invitational, NC, for "Light Finds a Way"
2024 Best in Show, Beaux Arts, Scottsdale Artists' School, AZ
2024 Artists' Choice, Cashiers Plein Air Invitational, NC
2024 Wet Paint Competition Winner, Oil Painters of America National Convention, for "Stories Alive at Chisholm Creek"
2024 Second Place, Quick Paint, Bluff Strokes Plein Air, Dubuque, IA
2024 Honorable Mention, Cedarburg Plein Air, WI
2023 Best Landscape, Oil Painters of America, curated by Roger Dale Brown
2023 Second Place, Wet Paint Competition, Oil Painters of America National Convention, for "Palms Living with Grace"
2023 Gold Medal and Artists' Choice, Palette and Chisel Academy Members Show, Chicago
2023 Second Place, Cedarburg Plein Air, WI
2023 Second Place, Prairie Plein Air, Schaumburg, IL
2022 Second Place, Evanston Plein Air, IL
2018 Third Place, Cedarburg Plein Air, WI, for "Lilac in Spring"
2017 Best in Show, Cedarburg Plein Air, WI. First watercolor selected in the event's history.
JURIED AND INVITATIONAL EXHIBITIONS
2024 Oil Painters of America National Exhibition, Wichita, KS, "Whispers of the Forest"
2024 Oil Painters of America Eastern Regional Exhibition, "Spring Stream"
2023 Oil Painters of America National Exhibition, "David Phlox"
Invited Artist: Cashiers Plein Air, NC (2024, 2026); Key Largo Plein Air, FL (2025, 2026); Winter Park Paint Out, FL (2023, 2024); Bluff Strokes Plein Air Dubuque, IA (2021, 2026).
COLLECTIONS
Cedarburg Art Museum, Permanent Collection, Cedarburg, WI
The White House, Permanent Collection, Barrington, IL
Private collections throughout the United States
TEACHING
Palette and Chisel Academy of Fine Art, Chicago. Faculty, Watercolor and Oil, 2017 to present
Plein Air Convention and Expo (PACE). Faculty, 2026
Plein Air South, Apalachicola, FL. Faculty, 2021 to 2022 and 2025 to present
Scottsdale Artists' School, AZ. Workshop Instructor, 2026, 2027
Blowing Rock Art and History Museum, NC. Workshop Instructor, 2026
Madeline Island School of the Arts, WI. Workshop Instructor - Asilomar Conference Center, CA. Co-instructor with Angela Fehr, 2025, 2026 and 2027
Key Largo Plein Air, FL (2026, 2027)
Paint Dexter Plein Air Festival, MI. Workshop Instructor, 2025
Co-taught workshop with Rachel Dowd, 2023, 2024
Artist in Residence, Plein Air Painters of Chicago, 2020 to 2021
JUDGING
2025 Paint Dexter Plein Air Festival, MI
2025 Indiana Artists Club Annual Exhibition
2024 St. Charles Plein Air Festival, IL
2020 Prairie Plein Air, Schaumburg, IL
PUBLICATIONS
When the Studio Goes Sideways. Studio Reset Series, Book One. Fairview & Evergreen, 2026.
Steady Hand, Quiet Mind. Stoic wisdom for working artists. Fairview & Evergreen, 2026.
Both titles available on Amazon.
INVENTIONS
Fairview Finder, a composition tool for painters and photographers. fairviewfinder.com
PROFESSIONAL BACKGROUND
Thirty-five years as an architectural illustrator and creative director with Parsons, a global engineering firm, leading its Creative Services Group and Innovation Team before turning to painting and teaching full-time in 2016.
MEMBERSHIPS
Oil Painters of America
National Watercolor Society
Testimonials
“Steve is so deeply passionate about his craft, which in and of itself is invigorating and motivational. Steve made me feel completely at ease and genuinely helped me find a passion for painting I didn't realize I had. I highly recommend his lessons for my fellow beginners and Steve's fellow masters alike.” - Bo H.
“A talented artist and a great teacher, Steve is fully present while teaching. He makes time for each student and has a joyful spirit. Highly recommend!” - Tara R.
“His artwork in oils and watercolors is exceptional. His teaching style is calm, encouraging, and clear. He covers basic principles of painting while motivating each student's personal style.” - Karen G.
“Each class was well planned and had a logical progression that resulted in improvement for myself and the class. Steve encouraged us and allowed the freedom for self expression. But his biggest asset is his ability to relate the mental aspects of painting. One example: painting with confident strokes.” - Workshop participant
“Steve is a very good artist and understands the challenges of producing beautiful and inspiring art. He stresses to his students the importance of choosing early on a focus that inspires the viewer, working on strong composition and color. He is a very kind and giving teacher.” - Christine H.
“Positive, attentive, personable, knowledgeable, technically skilled in both watercolor and oil, and always prepared for his weekly lessons. I highly recommend Steve to every artist I meet.” - Karen B.
“Steve is patient, inspiring, and very generous with his incredible knowledge. I highly recommend him as an artist and an instructor.” - Carol F.
“Steve taught at a very good pace. He challenged all of the students to complete one or more paintings during each class, even the first class. He provides wonderful demonstrations that emphasize a different painting technique each time.” - Tom F.
“Steve is very patient and enthusiastic about helping students and willing to pass on all his knowledge. I learned plein air painting from Steve and will attend more workshops when they are offered.” - Jack M.
“Steve is an excellent teacher and coach, as well as an outstanding artist. I learned a great deal from this workshop. I sincerely hope he is invited back again.” - Workshop participant
“This workshop opened up a whole new world of watercolor to me.” - Workshop participant
Artist Statement
Artist Statement
Steve Puttrich
I paint the places, people, and moments that make me stop and pay attention.
Light usually pulls me in first, though it is rarely the whole subject. I'm after the story inside the scene: the West Michigan shoreline going flat and silver an hour before dark, a stand of trees taking the last of the sun, the character in a face that has spent its life outdoors.
Thirty-five years of architectural illustration and design trained my eye for structure, proportion, and how things sit together. Nature taught me wonder. Faith taught me gratitude.
Design gives a painting clarity. Story gives it meaning. Freshness gives it life. I work on location when I can, in whatever weather the day hands me, and I stop while the paint still looks like it happened quickly.
When it works, somebody slows down in front of the canvas and sees something they have walked past a hundred times.
My 'Why' Story
The photo above is what I call a Norman Rockwell moment. That's me doing what I love, painting in plein air, in the open air. On this spring afternoon my wife Bobbie, our dear friend Valerie, and I had set up our easels beside a church and schoolyard in Schaumburg.
Halfway through the session, the school bell rang. Before we knew it, dozens of kids poured out onto the yard and gathered around our easels. True to form, they had questions. Good ones, too.
"What are you doing?"
"Can I do that?"
"How long did that take you?"
Then one boy asked the question that stopped me cold.
"Why do you paint?"
You could have knocked me over with a feather. I think I mumbled something like "To understand light" or "To see better." Bobbie, a few yards away, quietly caught the whole thing with her camera.
That question has followed me ever since. It reminds me of a line often credited to Coach John Wooden: "The person who knows how will always have a job. The person who knows why will be his boss."
In art, as in life, you need both. You can learn the how of painting in a few years. The why takes a lifetime.
So, why do I paint?
Connection. Steve Jobs said creativity is just connecting things, and I've found the same is true of painting. I paint to connect with the moment, with the light that won't hold still, with the place I'm standing in, and with the people who wander up to ask what I'm doing. I paint to share what I saw with someone who wasn't there. I paint out of gratitude, as a way of handing the gift back to the One who gave it. And if I'm honest, I paint hoping to leave something beautiful behind that will outlast me.
I've been an artist for forty-five years. I worked as an illustrator and designer, and for a long stretch I ran creative services and innovation for a global engineering firm. Ten years ago I came home to what matters most. Being a husband. Being a father to our three children and a grandfather to five grandchildren, and counting. Painting full-time. Teaching others. And doing all of it alongside my artist-wife, Bobbie.
Teaching may be my calling. Painting is my joy.
If that boy asked me today, I'd have a better answer. I'd tell him I paint to notice, to belong, and to say thank you. Then I'd hand him a brush.
Artist Biography
Steve Puttrich is a plein air painter, instructor, author, and inventor based in Holland, Michigan. He works in oil, watercolor, and gouache, and he paints what he can stand in front of: rivers, small towns, back roads, and the people he meets along the way. His paintings are known for strong design and clear value structure, painted quickly enough to keep the light honest.
Steve trained at the American Academy of Art in Chicago under Eugene Hall in oil and Irving Shapiro in watercolor. He then spent 35 years as an architectural illustrator and creative director for a global engineering firm, where he learned to make complex things read clearly at a glance. That discipline still shapes every composition he builds.
He has been painting for 45 years and teaching for ten. He is on the faculty of the Plein Air Convention & Expo and teaches workshops nationally, including at the Palette and Chisel Academy in Chicago, the Scottsdale Artists' School, and the Madeline Island School of the Arts. His teaching rests on a simple framework: Design gives clarity. Story gives meaning. Freshness gives life.
Steve is a member of Oil Painters of America and the National Watercolor Society. His work is held in the permanent collection of the Cedarburg Art Museum and in private collections across the country. He is the inventor of the Fairview Finder, a composition tool used by painters and photographers, and the author of several books for working artists, published through his imprint, Fairview & Evergreen.
At the center of it all is connection. Steve paints to notice, to share what he saw with someone who wasn't there, and to say thank you for the gift. He lives and paints alongside his wife, Bobbie, a fine artist, and counts their three children and five grandchildren as his best work.
Media
Wrote artical for American Watercolor Magazine on how to paint Waterfalls. https://americanwatercolor.net/most-waterfall-paintings-fail-for-the-same-reason/
At the 2017 Brush with Nature event held at Emily Oaks Nature Center, WGN TV's Sean Lewis interviewed me during the painting of my Milkweed Painting. Here's the two minute edited story.
Feature Article in Plein Air Magazine on painting Waterfalls in Watercolor Spring 2026