Greg Osterhaus
Greg Osterhaus discoverd his interest in art at an early age. As a child, he was always
drawing and making up stories, mostly drawing space men, armored war vehicles and monsters...typical boy stuff!! At this time
he received great encouragement from one of his Catholic school teachers, Sister Helen Edward, who took an interest in his artistic
enthusiasm and drawing abilities. His parents also enrolled him in private art classes where he received valuable academic instruction.
Greg moved form Schenectady, NY to Roanoke, Virginia when he was 12 years old and has lived there ever since. While art wasn't
a focus for him at school, he did later attend oil painting classes at the local community college and entered work in several art
shows. After high school, Greg attended Virginia Tech as a student of Architecture. Having spent some time taking art
and literature classes he eventually decided to focus on a career in graphic arts.
During his college years,
Greg was heavily involved with the school newspaper that claimed a readership of over 20,000. This provided a great opportunity
for him to develop his creativity. His involvement included designing a comic strip and writing an editorial column, as well
as contributing illustrations to accompany the stories. For two summers during college, Greg sold pen & ink artist impressions
of people's homes in the more affluent areas of his town. He also developed his interest in creative writing, completing an
unpublished novel during his last two years of college.
After graduation, Greg found employment with an architecture
firm as a graphic artist and photographer, where he worked for six years. During this time, Greg tried a number of studies from
figure works, to landscape paintings in watercolor, oil and pastel.
Having spent his formative years in Southwest
Virginia, Greg's influence has always been the beautiful surroundings of the Blue Ridge Mountains and Shenendoah Valley.
In fact, the majority of his landscapes were taken directly from scenes he'd pass within fifteen to twenty miles of his home.
These days, the work of Greg Osterhaus is represented in many corporate and private collections and can be found in galleries throughout
the United States.