Trevor Copenhaver currently lives in San Diego, CA, where he draws inspiration from Southern California’s beautiful coastline, beaches, mountains and deserts. 

Trevor grew up in Montana, surrounded by the wild beauty of the Big Sky state. He enjoyed a boyhood full of backpacking, hiking, camping, and fishing. He learned the importance of nature conservation, and developed a keen reverence and awe for the beauty and stillness to be found in the great outdoors. 

Trevor’s parents collected Western art. Paintings were hung on every wall of their country home, and they fostered an attitude of art appreciation in Trevor from an early age.

Trevor’s natural artistic abilities also began to be evident early on. At 7 years old he created his first still life in oil alongside his father’s easel. His father, a talented commercial artist and painter, continued to influence him throughout his youth, teaching him to draw with pencil and charcoal, watercolors, oil painting, and even calligraphy. 

Trever attended the Colorado Institute of Art in Denver, where he earned a degree in Advertising Design & Illustration. He graduated Portfolio Par Excellence in 1988, and took an Assistant Art Director position with an established San Diego PR firm. He worked with them for three years, doing a wide variety of design, layout, and print work. The suit-and-tie culture, however, was not the perfect fit for Trevor, and he decided to take the freelance path. He opened his first studio where he continued to do commercial work, as well as accepting commissions for paintings. 

His work has been published twice in the Los Angeles Society of Illustrator’s Annual, and has been exhibited at the San Diego Museum of the Living Artist, and the Southwestern Artist’s Association gallery. 

“Art has broadened my interests in life; it has taught me to see the not-so-obvious. Art should provoke emotion, stimulate the intellect, and enhance our lives with decorative beauty.”