About the artist

John Sterpe                                                                                                                      

I was born in the year 1958, an heir to a generation of artists, dating back to the 1800s. Syracuse, New York is where I am from, where the winters are pretty cold, long, and stormy.  Summers are lovely, but too short for me.  During one of the snow blizzards of 1976, I decided to head south.  Putting a few belongings into an old backpack, I hitched a ride, beginning an unknown journey, ending up on Miami Beach Florida.  Oh, how those tropical breezes captured me, the swaying of the coconut palms and the warm emerald waters of the Atlantic Ocean. I was young, It was there that I dwelt, for the next 25 years.

I learned the trade of finished carpentry, while remodeling condos that lined the Miami Beach area.  My work included homes for the wealthy and many numerous projects all over south Florida. 

I started camping in the late 80s,  The beauty of  Florida was very inspiring.  I wanted to keep this image with me. I wanted to show people where I was and what I was seeing, With that in mind, I began to put these images down on canvas.  I painted for my own enjoyment, the same as I do today.   I had no idea of this ‘hidden talent’, a gift from God, passed down through the generations. 

This is a talent giving to me as a gift, my study of my work is my work, inspired, I continue to paint, and in this small part of the  world GOD created is what I want to paint, here you will find it on canvas, paintings of Florida .

Thank you

Today, I paint mostly the Springs of Florida, rivers and coastal views.

I did my first art show in Miami at Fairchild Tropical Gardens, I met my sole mate Marjorie Jones there when she purchased an oil painting.

I took her to the place of the painting in High Springs Florida, Ginnie Springs. We moved to the small town of High Springs, located in north Central Florida . A few years later we left the small town and moved three miles north to the Columbia County side of the Santa Fe river into a house on an old dried out river bank once called the old river slough, on a 40 foot ridge in the middle of the woods ,  I am near the rivers and the springs, rolling hills and cliffs that I want to paint.  I am between two coastlines, plenty of unlimited images that keep me inspired to do my work.