Short Bio
Max Bechtle grew up in Berkeley, California, the son of well known photorealist painter, Robert Bechtle and talented illustrator, Nancy Gorrell.
Biography
Max Bechtle grew up in Berkeley, California, the son of well known photorealist painter, Robert Bechtle and talented illustrator, Nancy Gorrell. He demonstrated natural drawing and painting ability from an early age, which was met with encouragement from his family to pursue art. Max spent his youth enjoying art classes throughout school, winning several awards for his work. He and his father would frequently go out on plaine air painting excursions together, where Max took an interest in painting run down, industrial scenes. Later he would paint from photographs that he took during motorcycles trips throughout the Western United States. Max continues to focus on subjects that are in plain sight but are not meant to be noticed, or likely to be found in travel brochures. He gravitates toward old run down buildings with junky cars and other forgotten relics scattered about; preferring to paint scenes of things that are past their prime, that tell a story of hard scrabble life and neglect.
Max currently lives in the Sierra Nevada mountains with his wife and daughter.
