JOHN EBNER was born January 23rd. 1943 in Silverton Oregon. He grew up on the family farm in Sublimity Oregon (fifteen miles southeast of Salem). Plagued with allergies John could not be involved in outdoor activities during the season that grass pollen flew. He turned his attention to drawing. After graduating from high school in 1962 John moved to Portland Oregon and attended the Advertising Art School. In 1969 he married his wife Paula and moved further north to Bellevue and Kirkland.
Ebner has been painting watercolors since 1973 when his wife Paula signed him up for a watercolor course as the start of a new hobby. John was employed as a manufacturers rep. covering most of western Washington. This was a great opportunity to collect subject matter with the camera. “I would bring my paints on trips and paint evenings in the motel. I would supply a few local galleries and do a couple of street fairs. Doing these street fairs is a perfect way to meet your customers and add to your mailing list”
In 1999 Ebner signed with a national fine art publisher, “Hadley House” in Bloomington Minnesota, and was distributed world wide for three years. John is considered one of the the Northwest’s most collected artists, supplying about seventy galleries.
Working full time with a day job, doing the Bellevue Arts Fair and supplying Kenneth Behm galleries with originals became too demanding. In the year 2000, I retired from the sales position and became a full time artist. We built a new home and studio on Camano Island, where we self publish nearly one hundred images.
John & Paula were involved in starting the Camano Island Studio Tour where the public is invited to tour artists working studios. They have become a major destination with over three thousand people touring their studio and gardens.
Paula and I are avid gardeners. My studio opens on to our gardens where I spend much of my time in the spring and summer.
For me, being an artist has many benefits besides the joy of painting. An excuse to visit new places but most of all the ability to make new friends along the way.
