Howard Behrens

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Howard Behrens (Howard Chesner Behrens) was an American artist known for colorful, impressionist-style paintings created with a palette knife. He was born on August 20, 1933, in Chicago and grew up near Washington, D.C. He earned a master’s degree in painting and sculpture from the University of Maryland, College Park. Behrens worked for 17 years at the U.S. Government Printing Office, where his father was employed.

He lived in Potomac, Maryland, and died on April 14, 2014, after a long battle with Parkinson’s disease. Behrens developed a distinctive approach, making painting its own subject matter and combining travel, sketching, fine art photography, and painting to produce “big, juicy chunks of paint.” His works are sold in fine art galleries, on cruise ships, and at Costco.

While some critics felt he was overlooked by the art world, supporters praised him as a master colorist and a leading practitioner of the palette knife. He was selected, along with Simon Bull and Thomas Kinkade, to commemorate the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics.