Earl remembers at the age of five years old, drawing with his mother at the kitchen table. A talented artist herself, she encouraged him to pursue his art, advice that he avidly followed. Studying biology at Old Dominion University in Norfolk Virginia, he sold the occasional waterfowl painting and even carved and painted duck decoys for Outer Banks watermen when money was scarce. He developed a deep appreciation for nautical themes while scuba diving and sailing in the lower Chesapeake Bay and coastal North Carolina.

Later, he sketched and painted through a lifetime of government service, family, three children and foreign travel. As a traveler, outdoorsman and scuba diver, he found inspiration in wildlife, the ocean and particularly in the Virgin Islands where he and his wife frequently travel. His more recent expeditions include a photo safari in Kenya, Morocco and attendence at a two week long Montorno villa painting workshop in Seravezza, Italy studying under Kurt Schwartz.

Now working from a studio in his home in Leesburg, Virginia, he depicts the beauty of the outdoors and the lure of tropical beaches in oil and acrylics. Owners of his nature and portrait work hale from Arizona, California, Florida, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, Nevada, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Switzerland. He can now also be found as a resident artist at King Street Studios in Leesburg.