Dan McCaw was born and raised in the Irish mining town
of Butte, Montana. Dan’s hometown had no museums
or art schools, so the young McCaw’s desire to be
an artist stood out as something different. His peers planned
careers in mining copper or steel, or yearned to be doctors
and lawyers.
In 1962 McCaw received a scholarship to attend the San
Francisco Academy of Design. The Academy has had a nationwide
reputation for nurturing artistic talent since the late
1800’s.
After doing coursework at the prestigious Art Center of
Design in Pasadena, California, McCaw was asked to the
role of the painting instructor for the Art Center.
McCaw has taught hundreds of students how to paint over
the last few decades. Aspiring artists appreciate McCaw’s
congenial, witty, insightful teaching methods and they are
spellbound by his desire to help each of them develop their
individual skills and to truly enjoy painting as he does.
In the pursuit of knowledge and a better way to express
him self with paint, the eclectic McCaw has been inspired
by the superlative paintings of Sorolla, Flechin, Vuillard,
Bonnard, Franz Kleine and Robert Motherwell.
The artist has comfortably supported his family of seven
for nearly four decades mainly from the sales of his original
works.
