Dan Young was born in Denver, and grew up in western Colorado. “ Camping and fishing through out the Rocky Mountains as a child, has been a strong influence on me and my work,” Young stated. He attended Colorado Institute of Art, hoping to find a direction in art. After graduation he moved to Dallas to pursue the commercial art field. Even with a successful Illustration career, the landscape was always calling him back. In 1989, he returned to Colorado to begin painting full time. Young enjoys painting the rural life of the west, the ranches that dot the mountain valleys and river bottoms. He states,“ Though I’m a landscape painter, I like introducing hints of man’s presence in the landscape. Sometimes I feel I’m in a race to paint a disappearing way of life. It’s hard to watch so many of the family farms and ranches being swallowed up by development.” Young clings strongly to the importance of painting from life. He feels painting from life was the most important stepping stone for his career. Most days you can find him painting along a backroad or beside a mountain lake.