Hello! Being an artist, photographer and motorcyclist are a set of combined skills I came by naturally.

My mother, Joyce Ortner, was an internationally recognized artist specializing in oil paintings and murals, and a popular art instructor where she extensively toured Canada, the United States, Mexico, Europe and Japan. With sponsorship from GRUMBACHER paint, for many years Joyce toured sharing her painting techniques with her own graceful flair that was layered with an evident influence of her deep passion for the romance of the Victorian era. People everywhere adored her kindness and talent.

My dad, Larry Ortner, was an earth moving contractor and private pilot, with an early background of AMA Professional Motorcycle Flat Track Racing.

I was born in San Francisco, yet raised in Alaska. A genuine country lifestyle growing up in a log cabin where I was country, long before country was cool! With my dad’s passion for flying and my mom’s love of travel, as a family we ventured to extreme destinations ranging as far north visiting villages above the Arctic Circle, to the opposite end of the spectrum of what is possible in a small aircraft.. flying routes through Alaska and deep into Canada, down through mainland United States to the Gulf of Mexico, and continuing through Central America and over the Panama Canal into the jungles layering the Andes Mountains of South America.

Between the two of my parents, I learned the lifestyle of the adventurer, to be fearless with color in art, and to follow my own vision.

I look to nature for color inspiration, often infusing organic tones in my Weathered Walls paint treatments for custom homes, and commissioned art I produce at the easel here in my Santa Barbara studio. With art, my quest is to share a feeling where the details are in the colors with layers of subtleties and movement, light and shape that form my own style of impressionism. I paint with brushes and metal blades on both canvas and panel, usually with water-borne pigments.

For photography, I shoot with the advanced technologies of Sony mirrorless camera bodies and G Master lenses that create a certain Rembrandt quality of detail. Where my subject and topic are captured in its own best light, its own best moment.

Riding and racing motorcycles has been a global experience for me competing in AMA and FIM National and World Championship Motocross and Supercross events. In recent years most of my riding and competing has been centered within my appropriate age group, with a focus on the West Coast and Baja, which includes being a member of five SCORE Baja 1000 winning teams.

Between the family influence of my youth, which includes riding motorcycles since 1968, combined with the incredible destinations I have experienced traveling to competitions, motorcycles have given me the opportunity to seek out and visit beautifully aged churches and their historic art within, while touring elite art galleries in the spectacular cities that have greatly influenced my perspective of color and design. In reflection, it is amazing to me that my passion and ability on motorcycles has afforded the travel and discovery with phenomenal journeys through Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Austin, Tampa and New York City, deep into Baja and mainland Mexico, Central and South America, Puerto Rico, and overseas to the European cities of Amsterdam, Milan, Antwerp, Frankfurt, Lyon and Barcelona, with influential exploration of the Tuscan Region of both Florence and Venice.

Please enjoy your view of my site, a continuum of my art, photography and motorcycling where every picture shares a story.

Thanks! ..jon ortner