Curtis Stewart Jaunsen was born in Las Vegas, but raised in Atlanta, Georgia. He attended the Georgia Institute of Technology, where he was awarded both a bachelor's and a master's degree in Architecture. For many years, Curtis worked as both an architect and an artist, moving from abstract expressionist paintings in the early 1990's to realist paintings inspired by such artists as George Inness, John Singer Sargent and Emil Carlsen. In 2002, Curtis moved with his wife and two young children to Florence, Italy. For the next two years, he was enrolled at The Florence Academy of Art. Inspired by the beauty found in nature, Curtis now works on still lifes, portraits, and landscapes at his studio in Monticello, Mississippi.

“When I paint I concentrate on the pure visual impression of the thing in front of me. I try to find the beauty of light and atmosphere. I want my paintings to be truthful renderings of nature but also to resonate with feeling. My paintings involve hours of careful, intense observation. That is the chief joy of this kind of painting, that I can put aside the many distractions of a normal day and focus all of attention on what I find beautiful.”