Of his early talent, it was said he painted horses before he could walk, and he became a skillful rider. In 1908, he moved to Oak Park, Illinois, and enrolled in the Chicago Art Institute. At age 17, he first went West, going to the Little Big Horn Basin in Wyoming and then to Stanford University to study mining engineering, a career that took him to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon as a federal employee.

In 1920, he lived both in Pasadena and New York City and worked as an illustrator for the advertising firm of Lord, Thomas & Logan. He came to admire the work of distinguished illustrators Harvey Dunn and Pruett Carter, with whom he studied at night.

Unsure about the direction of his art career, he returned to Los Angeles and enrolled at the Chouinard and Otis Art Institutes. Trying to find his own style, he literally became a hermit and worked in isolation in his studio for five years. He strove for a sense of design, simplicity, and proportion, and feeling secure in his methods, established a studio at Corona del Mar. Ultimately he and his wife and daughter settled in Araby near Palm Springs.

His subjects range from marine to desert landscapes and include his early experiences in Grand Canyon and Navajo country as well as in New Mexico and California.

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